"It takes a lot of chutzpah to request the extraordinary relief of reprinting ballots," Democrat board member Siobhan Millen said. "The statutory deadline of September 6th can't be ignored just because of the capricious behavior of one party's candidate."
The board's three democratic members rejected the We The People Party's request to remove RFK Jr.'s name after he suspended his campaign last week.
"It's impractical, it was confusing, and it would incur needless expense to reprint ballots," Millen said.
By late Thursday, 67 of the state's 100 counties would have already received their printed absentee-by-mail ballots, one week before mail-in voting starts, according to Board of Elections executive director, Karen Brinson Bell.
"This is a much more complex and layered process."
She said it could cost counties several hundred thousand dollars combined to reprint, which could be a significant cost for counties such as Bertie County, for example, where they have about 12,000 registered voters.
"That's about $3,400, which does not sound like a lot, but for a county the size of Bertie County, this is not something that's been budgeted for," Brinson Bell said.
While the two Republican members on the board suggested the state could have more time and flexibility to generate new ballots, the board ultimately decided to keep RFK Jr.'s name on the ballot.
"It doesn't affect my voting choices," Joe Colopy said.
NC State political scientist Steven Greene said now that Kennedy has officially endorsed Trump, Republicans would prefer he were off the ballot as he will presumably take more vote from Trump than Harris.
"The concerns are essentially for Republicans that in a very close election, Kennedy could pull votes from Trump by remaining on the ballot and help Harris win the state," Greene said.
ABC11 reached out to both NC GOP and NC Dems for comment.
"To be honest, RFK wasn't going to influence me one way or the other," another voter said. "So, you know, I think it's kind of just a mess."