Dane County judge rejects RJK Jr. attempt to get off presidential ballot

A Dane County judge has rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., shown here campaigning for president in Iowa in August 2023, to have his name removed from Wisconsin's presidential ballot in November. (Jay Waagmeester | Iowa Capital Dispatch)

A Dane County judge on Monday rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to have his name removed from the presidential ballot in Wisconsin this November.

An attorney for Kennedy said immediately after the decision that he plans to appeal. A separate case on the issue had already been separately filed with the more conservative District 2 Court of Appeals, which covers the suburban counties around Milwaukee.

Dane County Judge Stephen Ehlke ruled that state law does not allow a candidate to withdraw from the presidential race once they file nomination papers. Ehlke said Kennedy was asking him to make an exception to the law for only him.

“However, courts are required to apply the law as written, not as some party wishes it were written,” Ehlke said.

Kennedy dropped out of the race in August, after he’d filed to get his name on the ballot in Wisconsin. After ending his campaign, Kennedy endorsed former President Donald Trump. Polls show that Kennedy’s candidacy likely pulled supporters from Trump.

Last week in a similar case, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Kennedy’s name must be removed from the state’s ballots, causing a delay of up to two weeks.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission previously ruled that Kennedy’s name must appear on the ballot, finding that if a candidate successfully files nomination papers to appear on the ballot, the only event that can cause the candidate’s removal is death.

In Wisconsin, a ruling to take Kennedy’s name off the ballot would cause delays and added expenses to county clerks responsible for printing ballots. Ballots with his name on them have already been printed across the state because county clerks must get them in the hands of municipal clerks by Wednesday. The first absentee ballots for requests that clerks already have on file must be sent this week.

If a candidate dies after ballots have been printed, the candidate’s name may be covered by a white sticker on the ballot. Kennedy’s attorneys pushed for his name to be similarly covered with stickers.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Kilpatrick said that the labor required to cover Kennedy’s name on ballots and the unknown effect the stickers would have on vote tabulating machines made that an impossible request that would also force clerks to miss state and federal deadlines.

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