Despite suspending his presidential campaign, third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on North Carolina’s ballot in November, the State Board of Elections decided on Thursday.
The board’s Democratic majority agreed that it would be impractical to remove Kennedy’s name now, given that over half of the state’s counties have begun printing absentee ballots, the first of which will be sent out on Sept. 6.
“Given the fact that we have a short deadline to turn these around, the amount of ballots that’s been printed, the cost that local counties would incur to reprint the ballots — with all those things in mind I move that he remain on the ballot,” board member Jeff Carmon, a Democrat, said.
The two Republicans on the board disagreed, saying they believed the board had the authority to delay the statutory deadline for absentee ballots being sent out.
After spending months fighting to achieve ballot access and even defending his candidacy in court, Kennedy’s newly certified “We The People” party asked the state board to withdraw Kennedy’s name from the ballot on Wednesday.
The request came a week after Kennedy announced he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Republican former President Donald Trump’s campaign instead. During his announcement, Kennedy said he would remain on the ballot in noncompetitive states, but would seek to withdraw his candidacy in major battleground states.
Citing internal polls, Kennedy said he wanted to be removed from those ballots because his candidacy would help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and harm Trump.
Republican board member Kevin Lewis suggested the board should have directed counties to stop producing ballots after Kennedy dropped out — even though his party had not yet requested that his name be removed from the ballot.
“I think it would probably have been prudent when this issue first was reported, to maybe say, ‘let’s go on a holding pattern until we had this board meeting,’ rather than ordering full steam ahead,” he said. “Nevertheless, I think that we’ve got the time and the means to remove these candidates from the ballot if we exercise our discretion to do so.”
The board’s executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, said the state would not have been able to meet its Sept. 6 deadline if it had paused ballot production.
In addition, the cost of reprinting ballots would be in “the high six-figure range” and would be borne by the counties that have already printed ballots, she said. It would also take the printing vendor an estimated 12 to 13 days to make the changes, likely forcing the state to reduce its absentee voting period.
The board, which has a 3-2 Democratic majority, initially refused to certify We the People in June in a party-line vote.
Board members faced a wave of criticism from Republicans and independents for that decision, with critics accusing them of blocking third-party candidates who may have taken votes away from the Democratic nominee.
The board later reversed its decision and certified We the People, clearing the way for Kennedy to run as a third-party candidate.
The North Carolina Democratic Party then sued, asking a judge to nullify Kennedy’s candidacy. The judge denied that request, allowing Kennedy to remain on the ballot.
One of the groups that opposed Kennedy’s candidacy said the campaign’s decision to request a withdrawal proves it was a “sham political party” from the beginning that was not actually interested in challenging the two-party system.
“Now that Mr. Kennedy has endorsed one of the two major party nominees, WTP’s disdain for the duopoly has suddenly and coincidentally faded away,” the group, Clear Choice Action, wrote in a letter to the state board on Thursday.
Board member Siobhan Millen, a Democrat, agreed.
“I think this whole episode has been a farce, and I feel bad for anyone who’s been deceived,” she said.
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