Independent US presidential candidate Little Kennedy is seeking court intervention in an attempt to have his name removed from the ballot in North Carolina before the presidential election. Last Friday, Kennedy filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court in North Carolina, accusing the state’s election board of refusing to remove his name from the ballot, alleging violations of state election laws and infringement of his freedom of speech. At a press conference in Arizona on August 23, he expressed his disbelief in his chances of winning and decided to suspend his campaign, instead choosing to support Trump.
In the lawsuit, it was stated, “As the November election day and ballot deadline approach, Kennedy has no choice but to seek immediate relief from this court.” Since suspending his campaign in August, Kennedy has been attempting to have his name removed from swing states’ ballots. Meanwhile, in some large states like California and New York, he is maintaining his name on the ballot as he believes his presence in those states will not affect the competition between Trump and Harris.
However, last Thursday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted against his request. The Board explained that as 67 out of 100 counties in the state have already begun printing ballots and the first batch of ballots must be mailed out before September 6, they have decided not to reprint the ballots. The Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, noted that their vendor has already printed over 1.7 million ballots, and reprinting them would cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Independent political consultant Christopher Thrasher stated that if a candidate’s name appears on the ballot, voters will cast their votes for them, as confirmed in the primaries. However, it is currently uncertain how many votes Kennedy may garner. Previous polls indicated that Kennedy had attracted some of Trump’s supporters before suspending his campaign.
Sources close to Kennedy revealed to The Hill that Kennedy aims to force the Democratic Party onto the defensive, making them spend more money in blue states where they wouldn’t typically allocate funds, diverting resources from swing states. The source mentioned, “He is launching a counterattack against the Democrats, forcing them to spend money in states like New York, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington that were not originally in the budget.”