NC Court Mandates Removal of RFK Jr. From Ballot

A North Carolina appeals court ruled Friday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name must be struck from the state's presidential ballots. Officials in the battleground state had planned to start sending out absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 election on Friday. But the court granted Kennedy's request, directing the State Board of Elections to reprint ballots without his name, though no legal reasoning was provided.

Kennedy, who nominated the We The People party, had ceased his campaign and backed Republican Donald Trump, leading to his lawsuit. The Democratic-led Board of Elections initially rejected his removal request, citing ballot and tabulation readiness. Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt ruled against Kennedy's effort on Thursday, triggering an appeal and leading her to instruct election officials to postpone mailing absentee ballots until noon Friday.

More than 132,500 voters have already requested absentee ballots. The State Board of Elections indicated a significant operational delay would follow, given that over 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots had been printed. State board attorney Paul Cox advised officials to hold current ballots but refrain from mailing them; Cox added that no decision about whether to appeal had been made. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)