North Carolina Court Halts Mailing of Absentee Ballots, Orders RFK Jr.’s Removal

Mail-in ballots sit in trays before being sorted at the Santa Clara County registrar of voters office in San Jose, Calif., on Oct. 13, 2020. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name must be removed from North Carolina’s general election ballot, a three-judge panel has ruled.

The panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals voted unanimously on Sept. 6 to grant Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of absentee ballots and reprint them without his name.

“This cause is remanded to the Superior Court of Wake County for entry of order directing the State Board of Elections to disseminate ballots without the name of petitioner Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. appearing as a candidate for President of the United States,” the order said.

The order came shortly before the state was set to start mailing out ballots at noon.

In their petition, filed late on Sept. 5, Kennedy’s attorneys argued that he complied with all the state’s legal requirements and deadlines for removing his name from the general election ballot. But the North Carolina State Board of Elections “ignored controlling statutes and instead elected to insert their own indeterminate, subjective ‘practicality’ standard in denying Kennedy’s requests,” they wrote.

The the former Democrat’s lawyers also held that he would be irreparably harmed and that his First Amendment rights would be trampled if he were denied an appeal.

The petition was filed hours after Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt denied Kennedy’s request for a temporary restraining order halting the absentee ballots’ distribution.

Holt found that Kennedy would suffer no harm from remaining on the ballot, whereas ordering the of removal of his name would inflict “substantial” harm on the state Board of Elections. She did, however, give Kennedy 24 hours to appeal the decision, ordering the board to hold off on mailing absentee ballots until noon on Sept. 6.

The legal battle is not the first Kennedy has fought in North Carolina this election cycle.

Just last month, he was in court for the opposite reason, defending his access to the ballot under the We The People Party. Weeks later, he suspended his campaign to join ranks with the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

North Carolina was initially set to be the first state to kick off early voting for the Nov. 5 election. As of Sept. 5, counties had received 130,400 absentee ballot requests, including more than 12,300 requests from voters in the military and overseas.

It is now unclear when those voters will receive their ballots.

In an email shared with The Epoch Times, Paul Cox, general counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, notified the state’s election directors of the order, urging a continued hold on sending out ballots.

“The court has also ordered that the We The People party’s ballot line be removed (including Kennedy and Shanahan),” Cox added. “Obviously, this will be a major undertaking for everyone. Our attorneys are reviewing the order and determining how to move forward. No decision has been made on whether this ruling will be appealed.”

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.