Election officials from Michigan and Wisconsin told the Supreme Court Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name cannot be removed from their ballots because it is too late and would disenfranchise voters.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told the justices that more than 1.5 million voters had already sent in their absentee ballots or voted early with RFK Jr. on the ballot.
Removing his name now would disenfranchise those voters who chose to support him, he said in a court filing.
“Michigan’s tabulating equipment has already been programmed to count existing ballots; that equipment cannot now be reprogrammed to tabulate different ballots,” it said.
In the Wisconsin dispute, state officials said the ballots are already printed, and it would be impossible to “apply millions of stickers to Wisconsin ballots in order to cover his name.”
“It is not possible to affix tiny stickers to the ballots remaining with clerks, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters, with many already returned,” Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul said in court papers.
RFK Jr. asked the justices last week to order his name be removed.
He said that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated his constitutional rights by putting his name back on the ballot after he petitioned to withdraw from the presidential race on Aug. 23. The statutory deadline was Sept. 6.
Mr. Kennedy’s lawyers said Wisconsin allows major party candidates a month to get on or off a ballot that is not afforded to independent third-party candidates.
When Mr. Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump, he said he would try to get off the ballots in battleground states so as not to hurt Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the White House.
He’s been successful in removing his name from elections in other critical swing states.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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