Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has won his legal appeal, which requires the North Carolina State Board of Elections to remove his name from all ballots, even those already printed.
The board announced Friday evening that it would appeal the North Carolina Supreme Court judgment. In the meanwhile, the board announced that it would work through the weekend to recode the 2,348 different ballot types statewide for the 2024 general election.
The 100 county boards of elections were legally required to mail out absentee ballots on Friday. The announcement stated that more than 2.9 million ballots had already been printed.
Karen Brinson Bell, the board’s executive director, requested counties to strive to have ballots in the mail by September 21. She requested that none be mailed until a date for all counties was chosen, according to the announcement.
More than 136,300 voters have sought absentee mail ballots. This comprises around 12,700 military and abroad voters.
Kennedy was to appear on the ballot as a representative of the We the People Party. On July 26, the Democratic Party filed the second of six lawsuits over 43 days to overturn the state board’s decision to put him on the ballot.
On August 23, Kennedy suspended his campaign and began requesting that his name be removed from ballots in battleground states. He then endorsed Republican former President Donald Trump over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
North Carolina is one of seven competitive states, representing 93 electoral college votes. Pennsylvania has 19; North Carolina and Georgia have 16 apiece; Michigan has 15, Arizona has 11, Wisconsin has 10, and Nevada has 6.