NC Court Orders RFK Jr.'s Name Be Removed From Ballots

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court on Friday ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name must be taken off state ballots for president, upending plans in the battleground state just as officials were about to begin mailing out the nation’s first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The intermediate-level Court of Appeals issued an order granting Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name. The court also told a trial judge to order the State Board of Elections to distribute ballots without Kennedy’s name on them. No legal explanation was given.

State law otherwise required the first absentee ballots to be mailed or transmitted no later than 60 days before the general election, making Friday the deadline. The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take more than two weeks, state attorneys have said. The ruling could be appealed.

Kennedy, the nominee of the We The People party in North Carolina, had sued last week to get off the state’s ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. But the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections rejected the request, saying it was too late in the process of printing ballots and coding tabulation machines. Kennedy then sued.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt on Thursday denied Kennedy’s effort to keep his name off ballots, prompting his appeal. In the meantime, Holt told election officials to hold back sending absentee ballots until noon Friday.

A favorable outcome for Kennedy could assist Trump’s efforts to win the presidential battleground of North Carolina. Trump won the state’s electoral votes by just 1.3 percentage points over Democrat