Kennedy wins appeal to remove name from North Carolina ballots

(The Center Square) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has won his judicial appeal, resulting in the North Carolina State Board of Elections needing to remove his name from ballots, including those already printed.

The board, in a Friday evening release, said it would appeal the North Carolina Supreme Court decision. Pending that decision, the board said it would work through the weekend to recode the 2,348 different ballot styles statewide for the 2024 general election.

Absentee by mail ballots were statutorily scheduled to be mailed out on Friday by the 100 county boards of elections. More than 2.9 million ballots had already been printed, the release said.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director for the board, asked counties to try and have ballots into the mail by Sept. 21. None are to be mailed, she instructed, until a date is determined for all counties, the release said.

More than 136,300 voters have requested absentee by mail ballots. That includes about 12,700 military and overseas voters.

Kennedy was to be on the ballot as representative of the We The People Party. The Democratic Party, on July 26, filed the second of what so far is six lawsuits over 43 days to reverse the state board’s decision to allow him onto the ballot.

On Aug. 23, Kennedy suspended his campaign and began to request his name be taken off ballots in the battleground states. He subsequently endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

North Carolina is among the seven battleground states representing 93 electoral college votes. Pennsylvania has 19, North Carolina and Georgia 16 each, Michigan 15, Arizona 11, Wisconsin 10 and Nevada six.