North Carolina’s absentee ballot release was delayed by RFK Jr. ruling, but will begin next week

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s first absentee ballots for the November election will now be distributed starting late next week, the State Board of Elections announced Friday, days after appeals court judges prevented original ballots containing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name from being sent.

North Carolina had been poised to be the first in the nation to send out ballots to voters for the fall elections. State law directed the first absentee ballots be mailed or transmitted to those already asking no later than 60 days before Election Day, or Sept. 6 this year. But on that day the state Court of Appeals granted Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name for president.

Kennedy had sued the board in late August to remove his name as the We The People party candidate the week after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision on Monday, left the lower-court decision in place.

These rulings forced county election officials to reassemble absentee ballot packets, reprint ballots and recode tabulation machines. Counties had printed more than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots before last Friday’s court order, according to the state board. Alabama became the first state to mail ballots, on Wednesday.

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