ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question is about a former presidential candidate who really wants his name removed from the ballot in North Carolina. Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. still on the ballot in North Carolina? If he is, how could that affect the vote in NC?
Answer: First, he allegedly cut the head off a beached whale . Now, by fighting to remove his name from the ballot in North Carolina, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cut the state’s mail-in voting period by at least a few days.
As of the morning of Sept. 6, Kennedy’s name was still on ballots in North Carolina, but it’s unlikely it will remain following a N.C. Court of Appeals ruling that same day.
Mail-in absentee ballots were scheduled to be mailed on the afternoon of Sept. 6, following a Wake County Superior Court ruling Sept. 5 denying Kennedy’s request to remove his name from state ballots. Judge Rebecca Holt ruled that removing Kennedy from the ballot would not only “force the state and counties to expend significant resources to reformat and reprint ballots,” it would also cause North Carolina to miss its own state-mandated deadline for distributing ballots.
Holt did provide Kennedy with a glimmer of hope: she issued a pause on sending out absentee ballots until noon on Sept. 6 to allow Kennedy an opportunity for appeal, which he did. Before the noon deadline, the state Court of Appeals stepped in, issuing an order barring the distribution of ballots with Kennedy’s name.
Done, right? No!
Immediately following the N.C. Court of Appeals ruling, Paul Cox, N.C. State Board of Elections general counsel, sent a memo to county elections directors instructing them to not send out ballots on Sept. 6. He also said not to destroy them either. The state board’s attorneys were reviewing the Court of Appeals order and will decide how to proceed, he wrote, noting that no decision had been made on whether to appeal the ruling.
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“Bottom line: continue to hold your outgoing absentee ballots — both military and overseas citizen ballots, and ballots for civilian voters,” Cox wrote, according to the memo obtained by the Citizen Times through a public records request.
Later that afternoon, the State Board of Elections made its decision and appealed the Court of Appeals' order to the N.C. Supreme Court. The state board asked the court for an expedited ruling.
In a Sept. 6 news release, the state board said it would begin prepping new ballots without Kennedy's name on them and provide proofs to county boards of elections to review, while the state Supreme Court considers the appeal.
So, is Kennedy still on the ballot? Technically, yes, his name is still on the ballots that have been printed, but you may never see it.
Impact in NC?
As of late Sept. 5, county boards of elections had received 130,400 absentee ballot requests, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections, including more than 12,300 requests from military and overseas voters.
In Buncombe County, nearly 6,000 absentee ballots were scheduled to be distributed on Sept. 6, according to Corrine Duncan, county elections director. She told the Citizen Times Sept. 6 that her office will continue to hold onto those ballots as directed by the state board.
While these recent court rulings have effectively shortened the window absentee voters will have with their ballots, it’s unclear how long the delay will be. In Holt’s ruling, she wrote removing Kennedy and reprinting ballots would reduce the amount of time absentee voters have to vote by “at least two fewer weeks.”
Duncan told the Citizen Times that it would take "at least" two days to reprint the 6,000 ballots already requested by Buncombe County voters. She also said voters will not have to re-request ballots if they have to be reprinted.
According to the state board's Sept. 6 news release, N.C. Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell sent an email to county elections directors that evening asking counties to ensure ballots are ready to distribute to absentee voters no later than Sept. 21, the federal deadline to send absentee ballots in a presidential election. It could take an additional 12-13 days to reprint ballots, according to the state board. If ballots can't be reprinted before the federal deadline, the state may request a waiver.
Also, unclear is the impact Kennedy’s removal from the ballot will have on the presidential race between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in North Carolina.
Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University, told the Citizen Times in an email before the state board's appeal that he didn't believe Kennedy’s name would be on the ballot.
“As to how it will affect the vote in NC, there's no way to know for sure,” Cooper said. “The polling suggests that RFK Jr. was more likely to pull from the Trump side of the ledger than the Harris side, so perhaps RFK, Jr. being pulled from the ballot is a small benefit for Trump.”
He added that it was also possible for Kennedy supporters to vote for another third-party candidate on the ballot, or just sit this election out — "an eventuality that would have a bigger effect down the ballot — where RFK Jr.'s party wasn't running a candidate — than at the top.”
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Jacob Biba is the Buncombe County watchdog reporter at the Citizen Times. Reach him at jbiba@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Man: Is RFK Jr. still on the presidential ballot in North Carolina?
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