The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Monday to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the state’s presidential ballot.
“The 4-3 ruling upholds an appeals court ruling Friday that said Kennedy’s name should be taken off the ballot,” NBC News reports.
BREAKING: The North Carolina Supreme Court has just ruled 4-3 that RFK Jr. will be removed from the ballot in that state.
Big win.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 10, 2024
Per NBC News:
A lower court had previously denied Kennedy’s effort to be removed. It also means ballots will need to be reprinted.
“We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State,” Justice Trey Allen wrote in Monday’s majority opinion. “But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count.”
Justices Anita Earls, Richard Dietz and Allison Riggs dissented.
NC Supreme Court order denies NCSBE request, and orders ballots to be reprinted to remove We The People Party's candidate (RFK, Jr.) from the ballot.#ncpol
The order has three of the seven justices dissenting; Earls (Dem), Dietz (Rep) and Riggs (Dem).https://t.co/Ewf1vQWgMH pic.twitter.com/bmkNZcdP5x
— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) September 10, 2024
North Carolina’s first absentee ballots were supposed to be mailed Friday, but the court ruling delayed the action to remove RFK Jr.’s name from the ballot.
ABC11 Raleigh-Durham reports:
In a written dissent, Justice Allison Riggs said that removing a candidate’s name from a ballot is “not simple after the ballot preparation process is complete.”
Riggs elaborated, saying: “Each ballot style has been proofed to ensure it meets the statutory criteria for official ballots. Each ballot style has also been coded to ensure that the vote tabulators correctly read the contest and candidate on the ballot. Changes made at the top of the ballot create a likelihood that candidates and contests further down the ballot may not be coded properly.
“Thus, once Mr. Kennedy’s name, currently in the second position on the ballot, is removed from the 2,348 different ballot styles, all contests and candidates below his name will require reproofing, re-coding, and quality control testing before reprinting.”
The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take more than two weeks, state attorneys have said.
Meanwhile, RFK Jr. had a different outcome in Michigan.
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled he must remain on the state’s presidential ballot.
UPDATE: Michigan Supreme Court Rules On Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Ballot Status