North Carolina Supreme Court Orders RFK Jr. Removed From Ballot

North Carolina’s top court on Sept. 9 narrowly voted to order state officials to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from ballots, deciding that leaving the former presidential candidate as an option could disenfranchise voters.
The majority said that there would be a cost to reprinting the ballots but that leaving the name of Kennedy, who withdrew as a candidate, would harm voters’ rights.
A representative with Kennedy’s campaign asked the state board about the removal that same day “putting the State Board on notice that plaintiff intended to remove his name,” according to the court’s order.
Rather than following up with the campaign, Bell instructed county boards of election to continue preparing ballots, even after the state board received a formal withdrawal request from the We the People Party, which nominated Kennedy as its candidate.
“To a large extent, any harm suffered by defendants in light of the Court of Appeals’ order is of their own making,” Allen said.
Justices Paul Newby, Philip Berger Jr., and Tamara Barringer formed the majority with Allen.
Berger said in a concurring opinion that the existence of hundreds of thousands of ballots in circulation with Kennedy’s name on them could create substantial confusion and that he wished the court could order those ballots destroyed.
Justice Allison Riggs said in a dissent that the state board of election has shown it will likely succeed in its case and thus would have halted the appeals court order. Riggs said state law does not allow candidates to remove their names from already-printed ballots.
Justices Anita Earls and Richard Dietz also dissented.
Dietz said he supported the state board of elections position but also said he thought the majority’s analysis was reasonable.
Bell told county boards of election in a missive after the ruling was handed down that they need to separate existing ballots and move them to storage to make sure they’re not used in the upcoming election. She said that the ballots are being reprinted.
“We know the hardship this imposes on you and your counties, and we deeply regret that. This decision raises hard questions about when ballot preparation is ever truly final before ballots are distributed. That may need to be factored into budgets going forward,” she wrote.