RFK Jr. plays ballot tug of war in battleground North Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) — Erstwhile presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the North Carolina ballot for now, a judge ruled Thursday.

Kennedy sued the board of elections after they decided in August that he would remain on the ballot, despite asking to withdraw as a candidate. Kennedy, who was not present in court Thursday, argued in his suit that he would sustain irreparable harm if he was to remain on the ballot in the battleground state.

The challenge comes after Kennedy’s party spent several weeks fighting the state board of elections to place Kennedy on the ballot.

Kennedy, who announced Aug. 23 that he would be suspending his campaign, said he intends to urge voters in battleground states to vote for former President Donald Trump instead of him.

In his suspension speech, Kennedy said polling showed staying on the ballot in battleground states would divide Republican votes, handing the election to Democrats, and that he decided he would withdraw from a handful contested states but remain on the ballot in others.

Third Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt ruled from the bench that the board would not be forced to reprint all the ballots without Kennedy’s party, We the People, on them, but ordered it to halt sending out absentee ballots for 24 hours. Kennedy’s attorneys said they planned to immediately appeal Holt’s ruling and needed the time before the ballots would be sent.

In North Carolina, the state deadline to mail absentee ballots is Sept. 6 — Friday.

In court Thursday, Kennedy’s attorney Phillip Strach argued that Kennedy has the right to take his name off the ballot as long as he notified the Board of Elections by Sept. 6, the absentee ballot deadline.

Refusing to take him off the ballot is compelled speech, Strach argued, and will create voter confusion. Strach said the board should ask the legislature for additional funds to reprint ballots if needed.

“We think there’s at least a reasonable argument that forcing Kennedy to hold himself out for president when he does not wish to do that in North Carolina is effectively compelled speech,” Strach said.

Mary Carla Babb, special deputy attorney general and counsel for the elections board, pointed out that Kennedy has been inconsistent state-to-state about his campaign, and that he is still fighting to be on the ballot in other states even as he fights to be removed from North Carolina’s ballot.

Given Friday’s deadline, it’s not feasible for the state to remove him now, Babb said — nor is the cost. Dozens of counties would have to remake ballots, approve them, recode them, and reproof them, a process that would take time and money.

“The state is obligated to put forth every effort to mail out absentee ballots by the deadline,” Babb said. “The deadline is tomorrow, your honor. As we speak right now, Wake County is finishing up assembly of their absentee ballots to be mailed out tomorrow.”

Reprinting ballots would delay the process at least two weeks and may cause the state to miss the federal deadline. This would irreparably harm voters planning to vote absentee, Babb said, but not Kennedy.

“Elections are not just a game and states are not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office,” she said.

North Carolina begins sending out absentee ballots before they are federally required to. Federal law requires ballots to be sent to U.S. citizens living internationally 45 days before the general election, this year Sept. 21. North Carolina law requires them to be sent 60 days before the election.

Given that, removing the We the People party from the ballot wouldn’t be feasible, Babb said.

“The plaintiff is not seeking to maintain the status quo, he’s seeking to upend it,” she said.

Follow @SKHaulenbeek Follow @shaulenbeek.bsky.social