RFK Jr. will remain on North Carolina's 2024 ballot
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on North Carolina's 2024 ballot, despite his decision last week to drop out of the race, the state's board of elections decided Thursday.
Why it matters: The impact of the move is likely statistically small. But in a state where elections are won on slim margins, Kennedy's remaining on the ballot could still be enough to sway the presidential election here, though it's unclear in whose direction.
- Kennedy was polling an average of 3.7% in North Carolina as of Aug. 22, per FiveThirtyEight, higher than the margin by which Trump won in 2020.
Driving the news: The majority-Democratic state elections board voted along party lines to reject the We the People party's request to withdraw its candidate, RFK Jr., in an emergency meeting Thursday, citing the state's looming deadlines to complete ballot printing.
- Removing Kennedy from the ballot would've required reprinting some 1.73 million ballots as of Thursday just over a week before absentee ballots are set to go out, per state elections board executive director Karen Brinson Bell.
Catch up quick: After initially rejecting Kennedy's party's request for certification, the state elections board ultimately voted in July to allow him on the ballot.
- Then Kennedy suspended his campaign last Friday, saying he planned to seek to remove his name from 10 battleground states' ballots "where my presence would be a spoiler."
- Hours later, he threw his support behind Trump, saying his staying in the race would've hurt the former president.
Between the lines: North Carolina voters will still technically be able to vote for Kennedy, but the votes won't count since Kennedy has withdrawn from the race.
- Data doesn't give a clear indicator of which candidate will be helped by Kennedy staying on the ballot here.
Zoom in: Following Kennedy's press conference, the board began receiving inquiries about whether they should continue ballot preparation. Brinson Bell said Thursday that they should so that they could meet the statutory deadline.
- "A press conference does not halt what we have to do to meet our deadlines in North Carolina," Brinson Bell said.
- RFK Jr. sent a signed letter to the board Tuesday morning requesting to be removed from the ballot, and his party officially requested Wednesday morning to remove him from the ballot.
