Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted 3-2 to reject a request from We the People political party to remove their candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the ballot. Therefore, Beaufort County voters will see his name when weighing options for president on Election Day. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was the third-party candidate until Aug. 23 when he suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump. Kennedy held firm that was not terminating his campaign; he said he would make requests to remove his name from appearing on ballots in swing states, according to national news outlets. 

On Friday, Aug. 30, NCSBE stated that Kennedy’s name will be printed on ballots, because it would be impractical, not to mention costly, to reprint ballots that have already been printed in addition to meeting a state law deadline to start absentee voting. 

“Approximately 2 million ballots statewide have already been printed with Kennedy’s name on them, and the first ballots will be sent to absentee voters in eight days,” NCSBE stated. 

The We the People Party was recognized as a political party by NCSBE as late as July 16. The party has several other candidates in North Carolina including Jeff Scott of Charlotte for N.C. District 40 and Mark Ortiz of Kannapolis for Rowan County Commissioner, per a letter from We the People to NCSBE. 

We the People sent a letter to NCSBE on Aug. 28 requesting Kennedy’s name be removed from ballots. The following day, the State Board held an emergency meeting to consider the request. 

“Estimates from the vendor that prints ballots for most NC counties were that the time it would take to prepare and print new ballots would leave most North Carolina counties without ballots until mid-September at the earliest and lead to significant additional costs,” NCSBE explained. 

As of Thursday, Aug. 29, 1.7 million ballots had already been printed. All but five of North Carolina’s 100 counties have ballots approved for printing, and a number of ballots have been printed for over 80 counties. Almost 70 counties had absentee ballots by the weekend so they can be sent to voters who will request them. 

NCSBE has announced that votes for Kennedy will be counted in the general election.