By Maria Ortiz
06 Sep 2024, 19:57 PM EDT
The start of voting by mail in the 2024 elections in the state of North Carolinawhich was scheduled to start on Friday, will be delayed to allow for legal proceedings after an appeals court ruled ordered the name of former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed from the state ballot.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has decided to consider Kennedy Jr.’s request to have his name removed from the ballot, a request the independent former presidential candidate is making to favor Donald Trump.
The decision reverses an earlier order by a Wake County Superior Court that decided to keep Kennedy Jr. on the ballot despite his announcement on August 24 that he was suspending his campaign and gave his support to former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The 70-year-old politician, son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s, commented then that would seek to withdraw his name from the ballot in the disputed states because he believed his presence in the race would help his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, by probably taking votes away from Trump.
Kennedy also urged his supporters to vote for Trump, regardless of their state of residence, thus contradicting his previous order to vote for himself if they lived in a non-decisive state.
Some 130,000 people in North Carolina had requested to vote by mail and after the court ruling It is not known when they will receive the ballots since, in the event that it is decided to erase Kennedy Jr.’s name, It could take weeks for the state to reprint them and the Board of Elections can also appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
At the time he suspended his bid for the White House, the environmental lawyer had less than 5% of the electorate’s support in a very close election in which key states will decide who will be the next president of the United States.
Continue reading:
• When are the elections in the United States?
• Removing Kennedy Jr. from the ballot could delay early voting in North Carolina
• Kennedy Jr. warns that Kamala Harris would not be a “worthy president”