When North Carolina voters begin receiving ballots next month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear as a candidate for president, even though he has said he no longer wants to be on the ballot here.
Less than two months after a protracted battle to get on North Carolina’s presidential ballot, We The People Party’s presidential candidate Kennedy requested late Monday to be removed.
In an emergency Thursday meeting, the State Board of Elections voted 3-2 to keep Kennedy on the ballot, citing the impracticality and cost of reprinting ballots a week before the Sept. 6 deadline for sending out mail-in absentee ballots.
During a Sept. 17 press conference, the independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and also endorsed former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Kennedy said he was worried about being a potential “spoiler” by taking votes away from Trump and giving Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris an edge, according to Associated Press coverage.
Kennedy has since requested removal from ballots in at least 10 states, including swing states Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. His success rate has been mixed.
In North Carolina, the Board of Elections voted along party lines Thursday to keep Kennedy on the ballot. Its three Democrats agreed that the cost and timing of reprinting ballots was impractical, while its two Republicans said they felt “boxed in” to a predetermined decision.
What would it take to reprint ballots?
North Carolina law requires absentee ballots to be provided 60 days before statewide general elections in even-numbered years. This year, that deadline is Sept. 6.
According to North Carolina law and administrative code, if a candidate resigns before the absentee voting period begins, the State Board of Elections “may determine whether it is practical to have the ballots reprinted.”
The state’s primary printer vendor — Printelect, which prints ballots in 93 of 100 counties — estimated that 80 of the counties it serves have begun production of mail-in absentee ballots, Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said during the emergency meeting.
Additionally, 67 counties have received their supply of mail-in absentee ballots as of Thursday, which amounts to at least 1.73 million ballots printed to date.
Brinson Bell said the cost to reprint ballots in counties served by Printelect was difficult to estimate, but reached into the high 6-figure range. Some of the cost would be absorbed by the printing vendor, but county boards of elections generally incur ballot printing costs, she added.
“So any of those 67, 68 counties that already have their ballots printed and in hand would have that cost to incur again,” Brinson Bell said.
For example, Bertie County, which has about 12,000 registered voters, has already received a partial shipment of ballots, she said.
“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,” she said.
Ballot reprinting and distribution would take 12 to 13 days, plus whatever time the State Board and county boards of elections needed to do a complete re-proofing to ensure ballot accuracy, she added.
The absolute deadline is Sept. 21, the date by which mail-in absentee ballots must be sent to military and overseas voters under the Uniformed and OVerseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
Republicans feel ‘boxed in’ on Kennedy decision
Republican Board members Stacy Eggers and Kevin Lewis said they believe there is room in North Carolina law to reprint ballots.
General Statute 163-22(k) allows the State Board to mail absentee ballots as soon as they are available “if they are not ready by” the statutory deadline, which is 60 days before the general election.
Board General Counsel Paul Cox said the law contains “ambiguity,” and the idea of what constitutes ballots being ready or not ready has never been tested.
Eggers also took issue with communication from Brinson Bell, who instructed county boards of elections to continue their proofing processes after Kennedy announced his campaign suspension, despite knowing the issue would likely come before the State Board.
“It seems to me that staff is trying to box us in on what our decision has to be,” Eggers said. “So I’m disappointed that counties are spending the money and the effort on this, knowing this would be an issue going forward.”
For comparison, he mentioned a 2022 incident in which the state paused ballot printing while the Green Party was involved in litigation.
Brinson Bell said Kennedy’s Friday press conference didn’t count as an official request to be withdrawn from North Carolina ballots. The State Board must receive official notice from a political party, not an individual candidate, to consider ballot removal, she said.
Monday evening, Kennedy’s lawyers officially requested his removal. Wednesday, the We the People Party made its official request.
Eggers said the Board should evaluate whether a request from a candidate should also be given weight. After all the effort that went into establishing the We The People Party as an “authentic party,” not a “vanity project,” board members Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen said, it would be inconsistent to recognize the person over the party.
“The statutory deadline of Sept. 6 can’t be ignored just because of the capricious behavior of one party’s candidate; one party, one person,” Millen said.
Political implications for Kennedy, other candidates
If Kennedy is going to be on the ballot, some people will vote for him, Western Carolina University Political Science Professor Christopher Cooper said.
“The political question then is, one, would they have voted without him on the ballot? And if so, who would they have voted for if he weren’t on the ballot?” Cooper asked.
Conventional wisdom points to Kennedy hurting Trump at the margins, since polling increasingly shows that the typical Kennedy voter may lean toward a candidate who challenges the establishment, he said.
However, even before he dropped out, most voters knew Kennedy didn’t have a chance to win. Kennedy votes were more likely “symbolic” votes to signal that a voter wanted a different option.
“So from that perspective, I’m not sure that that many fewer people are going to vote for him now that he has endorsed Trump — the math is still the same,” Cooper said.
While litigation is unlikely to be successful, since the question of practicality is included in the law, Cooper said he expects some lawsuits to be pursued if Trump were to lose in North Carolina and it is critical to the election outcome.
“For Trump to have the best chance of victory, I think he needs to communicate to people, ‘Hey, if you’re going to vote for RFK Jr, he says don’t. He says, vote for me, Donald Trump.’”
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