The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Tuesday to maintain Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the state's presidential ballot in November, thwarting the previous third-party candidate's plan to remove his name from ballots in key swing states that may resolve the 2024 presidential election.
The Wisconsin Election Commission voted 5-1 on Tuesday to maintain Kennedy’s name on the ballot, in accordance with State lawwhich stipulates: “No person submitting nomination papers and qualifying for voting shall be permitted to refuse nomination.”
A Trump spokesman didn’t immediately reply to CNBC's request for comment on the state's decision.
Kennedy suspended his hopeless candidacy for the White House on August 23 and supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
During his joint appearance with Trump in Arizona, Kennedy said his name would remain on the ballot in most states.
But “in about 10 swing states where my presence would spoil the election, I will withdraw my name,” Kennedy said. “I have already begun that process and I am urging voters not to vote for me.”
The move is widely seen as an try to help Trump by ensuring that Kennedy voters do not need the chance to vote for him in states where the vast majority of voters narrowly resolve.
Polls initially suggested that Kennedy's exit from the race would likely profit Trump greater than his opponent, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
This is partly because Kennedy is rather more popular with Republicans than with Democrats, which Trump higher positioned to potential Kennedy voters than Harris.
However, this strategy works best when voters haven’t any opportunity to vote for Kennedy because his name doesn’t appear on the ballot.
But Kennedy's strategy of dropping out of the candidacy and attempting to remove his name from the ballot in key states doesn’t go quite in accordance with plan.
In Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina – three swing states – Kennedy’s name will likely remain on the ballot until November.
In April, Kennedy secured a spot on the Michigan ballot because the Natural Law Party candidate.
Under state law, it is just too late for the Natural Law Party to pick latest electors, so Kennedy's name will remain on the ballot, Cheri Hardmon, press secretary for the Michigan Secretary of State, told CNBC in an email.
In Michigan, “minor party candidates cannot withdraw their candidacy,” Hardmon wrote.
In North Carolina, Kennedy is predicted to be on the ballot because the candidate of the We The People Party.
As of Tuesday, “this party has not informed the state executive committee of any plans to change its nomination,” Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told CNBC in an email.
“If We The People officially withdraws its nomination, the State Council would have to examine the feasibility of removing its name from the ballot papers and then reprinting the ballot papers,” he added.
Gannon said North Carolina will begin sending out mail-in ballots on Sept. 6 and that as of Tuesday morning, greater than half of the state's 100 counties have already begun printing ballots.
On Tuesday afternoon, a district judge ruled that Kennedy's name could be faraway from the Nevada ballot, though Kennedy suspended his campaign after the deadline for candidates to officially withdraw from the Nevada race.
The court decision settled a lawsuit filed in June by two Nevada voters calls for Kennedy's removal from the state ballot.
Kennedy has withdrawn his candidacy in Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Texas, the respective secretaries of state announced. He can also be unlikely to run in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where his candidacy was being tried in state courts when he withdrew his candidacy for the White House.
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