Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a lawsuit in North Carolina for an odd reason — to get his name off the state’s presidential ballot.
Last Friday, Kennedy filed the lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court against the North Carolina State Board of Elections. The suit was filed in response to the board denying his request to remove his name from the presidential ballot as a third-party candidate.
Kennedy, who was originally running as an independent candidate, announced last week that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump for president.
But, with North Carolina refusing to remove his name from the ballot, he says that they are violating his free speech rights and state election law.
As the suit says:
“With (the) November election looming and ballot deadlines fast-approaching, Kennedy has no choice but to turn to this Court for immediate relief.”
Since suspending his campaign last week, Kennedy has tried to move quickly to get his name removed from the ballot where it appears. He has focused first and foremost on states where the race looks like it could be close come November, such as North Carolina.
Kennedy’s name will continue to remain on the ballot in North Carolina unless the court decides to intervene in the case.
The three Democrats who sit on the state’s Board of Elections outvoted the two Republicans who sit on the board, rejecting the request from Kennedy and his running mate Nicole Shanahan to be removed from the “We The People” ballot.
The Democrats on the board said it was already too late for them to remove his name, since 67 of the 100 counties in the state had already started to print ballots. The state is required to send out those ballots starting on September 6.
According to Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the board, the main vendor who serves a majority of the counties in the state has printed more than 1.7 million ballots already.
As she said:
“When we talk about printing a ballot, we are not talking about … pressing ‘copy’ on a Xerox machine. This is a much more complex and layered process.”
The Republicans who sit on the board disagreed with the decision, saying that they could easily delay the statutory deadline for when the absentee ballots had to be sent out and turned in.
It’s an interesting, quick and ironic turn of events for Kennedy, who only a few weeks ago was in court trying to argue that his name should appear on the ballot in New York. Now, he’s fighting to get his name removed from a crucial state where his name does appear.
Kennedy apparently negotiated with Trump before officially announcing he would suspend his campaign. It’s been reported that he’ll be offered a high-ranking job in Trump’s transition team should the Republican win the election in November.
