Early voting for the 2024 elections in North Carolina has been delayed following a legal dispute over the state’s ballots.
The delay was caused by the court battle regarding the removal of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from the state’s ballot.
Last week, the Court of Appeals ruled that the election board would be required to take Kennedy’s name off ballots.
The court sided with Kennedy by overruling the state election board’s 3-2 decision against doing so.
The election board appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court but began the process of printing new absentee ballots and reprogramming voting machines.
It was not clear when the Supreme Court would make a decision on the case.
However, the issue has now delayed early voting in the state, which was set to begin on September 6.
In citing a reason for not removing Kennedy’s name, the election board said it had already started printing the ballots.
Yet, it waited six days after Kennedy requested the action before making the decision.
The election board has a majority of Democrats.
It is widely believed that leaving Kennedy’s name on the ballot would hurt Republicans more than Democrats.
State attorneys have said it would take two weeks to reprint the ballots so they can be distributed and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Vendors have been instructed to preserve the original ballots in case the Supreme Court rules against removing Kennedy’s name.
More than 136,000 North Carolina voters have requested mail-in ballots so far.
They have until October 29 to do so.
Ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
Kennedy suspended his campaign on August 23 and endorsed President Donald Trump.
He said then that he would remove his name from ballots in swing states where a close vote could be affected by his ballot appearance.
In deep blue and red states, he did not make the request, arguing that his name would allow voters to cast a “protest vote.”
Kennedy also won a battle to get his name off the ballot in Michigan with a similar appeals court ruling.
The deadline to send military ballots overseas in Michigan is September 21, which means there isn’t much time to reprint ballots in that state either.
However, Michigan’s Supreme Court, which has a majority of Democrat-nominated justices, ruled on Monday that Kennedy must appear on the battleground state’s ballot, despite his efforts to get removed after ending his presidential campaign.
In Wisconsin, a hearing will be held next week to determine whether to remove Kennedy’s name.
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