Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a lawsuit against the North Carolina election board to have his name removed from the 2024 presidential election ballot, following the board’s rejection of his request last Thursday.
Kennedy dropped out of the race last month and endorsed President Trump, prompting his request to be removed. His lawsuit, filed in Wake County Superior Court on Friday, argues that the board's refusal to take the We the People party, which nominated him, off the ballot violates both state election law and his right to free speech.
While pushing to exit North Carolina’s ballot, Kennedy’s legal team simultaneously appealed to restore his name on New York's ballot. His fight in New York began after questions about his residency led to his removal from the ballot, just before he dropped out of the race.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have put his residence as the moon and no one would be confused with who Robert F. Kennedy is,” his attorney Jim Walden told an appeals court judge earlier.
Kennedy had submitted his candidate filing in Oregon last Monday, while also withdrawing his name from other battleground states.
In North Carolina, the election board’s Democratic members outvoted Republicans 3-2 to reject Kennedy’s request. With ballots already being printed in 67 of the state’s 100 counties, totaling nearly 1.7 million, the statutory deadline of Sept. 6 is fast approaching.
“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,” said Siobhan Millan, one of the Democrats who voted against Kennedy’s removal. “I’m just going to be real blunt and say I think this whole episode has been a farce, and I feel bad for anyone who’s been deceived.”
