Connect with us

Politics

RFK Jr.’s bid to take himself off swing state ballots may scramble mail-in voting

Published

on

RFK Jr.’s bid to take himself off swing state ballots may scramble mail-in voting

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be removed from ballots in Michigan and North Carolina, two key battleground states in the 2024 presidential election, after state appeals courts ruled in his favor on Friday.

The rulings have delayed the mailing of absentee ballots in North Carolina, and it may also affect mail-in voting in Michigan, where the deadline to send out ballots for military and overseas voters is Sept. 21.

The North Carolina appeals court said in a last-minute ruling on Friday that Kennedy’s name should be taken off the state ballot, blocking the state board of elections from distributing absentee ballots on the day it was supposed to begin doing so.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections quickly appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court but said it would begin coding new ballots without Kennedy’s name. More than 2.9 million ballots had already been printed with the former independent candidate’s name on it, the board said.

Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of North Carolina’s election board, previously estimated that it could take two weeks to reprint ballots at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, The Associated Press reported.

In Michigan, a state appeals court similarly ruled on Friday that Kennedy’s name should be stricken from the ballot, reversing a lower court’s earlier decision. Hours later, Secretary of State Joyce Benson, a Democrat, asked the Michigan Supreme Court for an emergency decision on the appeals court ruling. Ballots have not been printed in Michigan yet, and Benson has some leeway with the timing of the process given the state’s deadline.

After suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Donald Trump in late August, Kennedy began the process of removing himself from the ballots in swing states — many of which he fought hard to get on in the first place — to avoid spoiling the vote for the Republican nominee.

With less than two months until Election Day, Kennedy’s ballot efforts have seen mixed results. But his court battles may end up throwing into disarray mail-in voting in several crucial battleground states. He also sued Wisconsin this week to remove his name from the ballot there.

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Read More

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

Senate program for in-state lawmaker security could hitch a ride on spending stopgap

Published

on

Senate program for in-state lawmaker security could hitch a ride on spending stopgap

Sen. Susan Collins says her chamber voted to extend a pilot program for improved safety in senators’ states…
Read More

Continue Reading

Politics

Trump policies to ‘drag’ on economic growth, CBO predicts, offsetting megabill gains

Published

on

Trump policies to ‘drag’ on economic growth, CBO predicts, offsetting megabill gains

The nonpartisan scorekeeper estimates the president’s tariff policies will also cool, and then rev up, the economy over the next three years…
Read More

Continue Reading

Politics

‘Don’t even bother dealing with them,’ Trump says of Democrats’ shutdown demands

Published

on

‘Don’t even bother dealing with them,’ Trump says of Democrats’ shutdown demands

The president weighed in after top Democratic leaders sketched out ultimatums on health care…
Read More

Continue Reading

Trending