NC Mail-In Voting Rollout Delayed 24-Hours To Let RFK Jr. Appeal Ruling Denying His Request to Scrub Name From Ballot
North Carolina’s early voting faced a delay after a judge temporarily paused the mailing of ballots on Thursday by 24 hours to allow former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the opportunity to appeal the decision to reject his request to have his name scrubbed from the ballot.
Kennedy Jr. is seeking to remove his name from the ballot following his endorsement of former President Donald Trump but on Thursday Judge Rebecca Holt denied his request, then halted ballot distribution by one day to allow time for an appeal.
If Kennedy Jr.’s team files an appeal before Friday’s noon deadline, the Court of Appeals could further delay the absentee ballot distribution. If no appeal is filed, ballots will go out as planned.
The Democratic-controlled State Board of Elections had earlier rejected Kennedy Jr.’s request, citing logistical challenges and costs involved in reprinting ballots.
Holt upheld that rejection, telling Kennedy Jr.’s legal representatives: “The court can find no practical, personal, or pecuniary harm to the plaintiff should his name remain on the ballot.”
She repeated the State Board of Elections argument that reprinting would impose “considerable cost and effort.”
Kennedy Jr. is scrambling to remove his name from ballots across the country after, in some cases, taking legal action to get on them in July as a third-party candidate—desperately reversing course over fears that his listing on key battleground state tickets could hurt his new ally, Trump.
In an email to staff on Thursday, State Board general counsel Paul Cox instructed county boards of elections to “make preparations to not send out (absentee) ballots tomorrow (Friday) morning, unless you hear otherwise from the State Board. At the end of that 24-hour period, ballots will need to go out, unless the Court of Appeals orders otherwise.”
He added: “So it may be the case that ballots will need to be distributed tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, because that is the deadline in state law. Or it may be the case that the Court of Appeals orders a further delay. Stay tuned.”
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