Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he is suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections in an effort to have his name removed from the ballot ahead of the November presidential election. Kennedy has suspended his campaign in swing states and has urged supporters to support former President Donald Trump, though a number of swing states are forcing him to remain on the ballot.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Wake County Superior Court on Friday, argues that the board’s denial of his request to remove his name as a third-party presidential candidate is a violation of state election law and his right to free speech, according to a report from The News & Observer and WRAL.
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“With November election looming and ballot deadlines fast-approaching, Kennedy has no choice but to turn to this Court for immediate relief,” the lawsuit states.
Since he made the decision to suspend his campaign, Kennedy has sought to remove his name from the ballot in a number of swing states, including North Carolina. He intends to remain on the ballot in solid red or blue states where he will not function as a “spoiler,” he explained at an Arizona press conference last week. To that end, he has filed separate lawsuits to remain on the ballot in certain states, including New York.
On Thursday, the North Carolina Board of Elections voted three to two along partisan lines to reject the request to remove Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, from the ballot. The board’s Democrat members voted to keep Kennedy on the ballot while the two Republicans voted to remove.
The board’s Democrats claimed that it is “too late” to make any changes, as 67 of the state’s 100 counties have already started the process of printing ballots. More than 1.7 million ballots have already been printed, and reprints would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
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“When we talk about the printing a ballot we are not talking about … pressing ‘copy’ on a Xerox machine. This is a much more complex and layered process,” Brinson Bell told the board.
Election officials in Wisconsin and Michigan have also denied Kennedy’s requests to escape the ballot, both of which have Democrat-controlled election boards. Kennedy has had more success in leaving the race in Georgia and Nevada, however.
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