North Carolina Supreme Court rules Robert F. Kennedy Jr's. name must be removed from ballots

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The North Carolina Supreme Court on Monday upheld a lower-court ruling that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name must be taken off state ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The intermediate-level Court of Appeals had issued an order last week granting Kennedy's request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name. The State Board of Elections announced Friday that it would appeal that decision to the Supreme Court and asked the state's highest court to expedite its ruling.

The court did just that Monday, saying it concluded that the NCBOE did not meet its "heavy burden" under the standard, and accordingly "we deny their petition for discretionary review."

The court directed all printed ballots listing Kennedy's name be destroyed and said the director of the Board of Elections and each county board director should be required to certify "the destruction of these invalid ballots to maintain public confidence in the upcoming election."

The first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 election were supposed to be mailed out Friday, but the court ruling forced election workers to delay so they could make new ballots without Kennedy as an option.

State law otherwise required the first absentee ballots to be mailed or transmitted no later than 60 days before the general election, making Friday the deadline.

ALSO SEE | Key dates and deadlines for North Carolina's general election

"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," the justices wrote. "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."

On Friday, the NCBOE said staffers would work through the weekend to begin coding new ballots without Kennedy's name and providing proofs of the new ballots to county boards of elections for review.

Kennedy, the nominee of the We The People party in North Carolina, had sued to get off the state's ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. But the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections rejected the request, saying it was too late in the process of printing ballots and coding tabulation machines. Kennedy then sued.

In a written dissent, Justice Allison Riggs said that removing a candidate's name from a ballot is "not simple after the ballot preparation process is complete."

Riggs elaborated, saying: "Each ballot style has been proofed to ensure it meets the statutory criteria for official ballots. Each ballot style has also been coded to ensure that the vote tabulators correctly read the contest and candidate on the ballot. Changes made at the top of the ballot create a likelihood that candidates and contests further down the ballot may not be coded properly.

"Thus, once Mr. Kennedy's name, currently in the second position on the ballot, is removed from the 2,348 different ballot styles, all contests and candidates below his name will require reproofing, re-coding, and quality control testing before reprinting."

The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take more than two weeks, state attorneys have said.

Different Outcome in Michigan

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Kennedy would remain on the state's November presidential ballot, ending Kennedy's efforts to withdraw his name.

Kennedy sued Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on Aug. 30 in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot.

Monday's decision reverses an intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruling made Friday. It ensures that Kennedy's name will appear on voters' ballots in the valuable battleground state despite his withdrawal from the race.

The court said in a brief order that Kennedy "has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief, and we reverse."

"This plainly has nothing to do with ballot or election integrity," Kennedy's attorney, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement. "The aim is precisely the opposite - to have unwitting Michigan voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate."

The Associated Press contributed.