The North Carolina Supreme Court Monday ordered the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. —the former independent presidential candidate who has dropped out of the race and endorsed former President Donald Trump—from the state’s ballots, just hours after Michigan’s Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling to force Kennedy to remain on the rust belt state’s ballot.
Former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has endorsed GOP nominee and former President ... [+]
In a 4-3 ruling, North Carolina’s top court upheld an appeals court decision from last week to remove Kennedy’s name—delaying the state’s process of sending out mail-in ballots.
In the majority opinion, Justice Trey Allen wrote the bench acknowledges that “expediting the process of printing new ballots” will take considerable time and incur a significant cost for the state.
But Allen argued this is a price the state’s constitution “expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count.”
State officials had printed more than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots with Kennedy’s name on them, and they will now have to be reprinted with the counties bearing the cost, according to the Associated Press.
Earlier on Monday, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Kennedy must remain on the state’s ballot, reversing a lower court order from last week.
In its ruling, the Michigan top court said the former independent candidate “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief.”
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136,000. That is the total number of absentee ballot requests North Carolina election officials received as of last week. The state Supreme Court’s decision will now delay the process of mailing out these ballots.