The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) has rejected We the People Party’s request to remove the name of its nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the state general election ballot.
The NCSBE said it would be impractical to reprint ballots by the state’s absentee voting deadline in eight days, given that approximately 2 million ballots with Kennedy’s name have already been printed.
In July, the NCSBE panel certified the We the People Party—which then allowed Kennedy to be on the ballot—in a 4–1 vote.
The NCSBE said the We the People Party contacted the board asking to have his name removed on Wednesday.
An emergency meeting was scheduled, and the board decided that “it was too late in the process to change course.”
“Estimates from the vendor that prints ballots for most NC counties were that the time it would take to prepare and print new ballots would leave most North Carolina counties without ballots until mid-September at the earliest and lead to significant additional costs,” the NCSBE said on Thursday.
“There is no deadline in state law for when a party may withdraw its presidential nominee and have their name replaced or removed from the ballot.”
However, the board said that absentee ballots must be sent out by Sept. 6, according to state law.
The North Carolina Administrative Code authorizes the NCSBE to determine the practicality of reprinting ballots before the deadline when a political party chooses to change its presidential nominee, the board said.
“As of Thursday morning, the State Board was aware that at least 1,730,000 ballots had already been printed,” the board said. “About 95 of the 100 counties have ballots approved for printing, and at least some ballots have been printed for more than 80 counties. Of these, nearly 70 counties will have their absentee ballots by the end of the day today, so they can prepare them for sending to voters who requested them on September 6.”
