‘To a large extent, any harm suffered by defendants in light of the Court of Appeals’ order is of their own making’ Justice Trey Allen said.
North Carolina’s top court on Sept. 9 narrowly voted to order state officials to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from ballots, deciding that leaving the former presidential candidate as an option could disenfranchise voters.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections asked justices to overturn a state appeals court ruling that ordered the reprinting of ballots without Kennedy’s name.
The majority said that there would be a cost to reprinting the ballots but that leaving the name of Kennedy, who withdrew as a candidate, would harm voters’ rights.
“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 for the majority. “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.”
Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign on Aug. 23. Karen Brinson Bell, the state elections director, said that on Aug. 23 she was aware of the suspension and that Kennedy planned to remove his name from ballots in battleground states.
A representative with Kennedy’s campaign asked the state board about the removal that same day “putting the State Board on notice that plaintiff intended to remove his name,” according to the court’s order.
Rather than following up with the campaign, Bell instructed county boards of election to continue preparing ballots, even after the state board received a formal withdrawal request from the We the People Party, which nominated Kennedy as its candidate.
“To a large extent, any harm suffered by defendants in light of the Court of Appeals’ order is of their own making,” Allen said.
Justices Paul Newby, Philip Berger Jr., and Tamara Barringer formed the majority with Allen.
Berger said in a concurring opinion that the existence of hundreds of thousands of ballots in circulation with Kennedy’s name on them could create substantial confusion and that he wished the court could order those ballots destroyed.
Justice Allison Riggs said in a dissent that the state board of election has shown it will likely succeed in its case and thus would have halted the appeals court order. Riggs said state law does not allow candidates to remove their names from already-printed ballots.
Justices Anita Earls and Richard Dietz also dissented.
Dietz said he supported the state board of elections position but also said he thought the majority’s analysis was reasonable.
Bell told county boards of election in a missive after the ruling was handed down that they need to separate existing ballots and move them to storage to make sure they’re not used in the upcoming election. She said that the ballots are being reprinted.
“We know the hardship this imposes on you and your counties, and we deeply regret that. This decision raises hard questions about when ballot preparation is ever truly final before ballots are distributed. That may need to be factored into budgets going forward,” she wrote.
The decision is the latest in Kennedy’s bid to remove his name from ballots in many states. Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled earlier on Monday that Kennedy’s name must remain on the ballots there.