Sept. 6 (UPI) — Former independent president candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. secured a legal victory in Michigan Friday when the state’s Court of Appeals ruled he could withdraw his name from the November election ballot.
Kennedy dropped his 2024 presidential bid last month and threw his support to Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has promised him a position in his administration should he triumph over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In an effort to help Trump, Kennedy has been seeking to remove his name from ballots in “battleground” states such as Michigan, where Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson initially rejected his request on the grounds that it was against state law to do so.
Her decision was upheld last week by Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates, but Kennedy immediately appealed that ruling and on Friday received a favorable outcome from the state’s three-judge appellate panel.
In its five-page ruling, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision and ordered Benson to remove Kennedy’s name from the ballot.
“While the request was made close to the deadline for defendant to give notice of candidates to local election officials, it was not made so late that laches should apply,” the court said in a ruling signed by Justices Michael Gadola, Mark Cavanagh and Mark Boonstra.
“Additionally, we conclude that the absence of any statutory authority prohibiting his withdrawal gave plaintiff a clear legal right to have his name removed from the ballot,” they wrote.
Michigan law requires the Secretary of State to submit the list of candidates for each office to county clerks no later than 60 days before the election, which in this case is Friday.
Kennedy this week also filed suit in Wisconsin, where he is similarly seeking to have his name removed from the ballot in a bid to aid Trump. The Wisconsin Elections Commission ruled last week that state law forbids anyone who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot to decline the nomination.
Also on Friday, the disowned scion of the nation’s most famous Democratic family succeeded in a bid to remove his name from the ballot in North Carolina, which is not generally considered a “battleground state” in the mold of Michigan or Wisconsin.
There, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a circuit court judge who had denied Kennedy’s request to be removed from the ballot. The decision means state election officials will now miss Friday’s deadline for sending out absentee ballots.
