Elections officials in North Carolina are working to design and print new ballots for the 2024 General Election without the We The People Party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates, but all that work may push the state past the federal deadline for sending out military and overseas ballots to voters.
The state Supreme Court, in a 4–3 ruling late Monday, required election officials to remove the We The People party line from the presidential contest on the ballot, including the party’s presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and vice-presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan.
As of Monday, 146,603 voters, including more than 12,900 military and overseas voters, had requested ballots for the 2024 general election, according to the State Board of Elections.
The board is now preparing for the possibility that North Carolina cannot meet the federal deadline — 45 days before the election, which this year is September 21 — for distributing military and overseas ballots to voters. The board said on Tuesday it has begun discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense to seek a potential waiver of that deadline, if ballots are not ready in all counties by that date.
“We will continue to consult with counties and ballot vendors to determine the feasible start date for distributing absentee ballots statewide, mindful of the goal to meet the 45-day federal deadline,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “This decision imposes a tremendous hardship on our county boards, at an extremely busy time. But our election officials are professionals, and I have no doubt we will rise to the challenge.”
Ballots were ready to go out last week to meet the state’s own legal deadline to begin sending out absentee mail ballots. Following the state Supreme Court’s decision, revised ballots will be printed and delivered to eligible voters who have requested an absentee ballot “as soon as they are available, which is expected to occur in the next couple weeks,” the Board of Elections said.
“The exact date when all 100 counties will have new ballots ready to send to absentee voters is uncertain,” the board said. “When that occurs, all counties will begin sending ballots on the same day. This is to ensure voters across the state have the same amount of time to cast their ballots.”
There are 2,348 different ballot styles — specific combinations of contests that a voter is eligible to vote on, based on their residence — statewide for the 2024 General Election. More than 2.9 million individual ballots had been printed before the court order.
The elections board has asked county boards to strictly separate and move to storage all ballots that had been printed with the We The People Party line on them. This is to avoid any possibility that the wrong ballots are sent to voters.
Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina, said the Supreme Court’s order to remove Kennedy from the ballot was “overtly partisan” and a “disservice to the voters of North Carolina.”
“The court’s decision will delay voting by mail in North Carolina by two weeks or more at a cost of nearly $1 million to taxpayers,” Phillips said in a statement on Tuesday. “Kennedy’s bizarre behavior of demanding to get on and off the ballot has been well documented. The state’s highest court is simply bowing to what one political party believes will be advantageous to them, rather than making a decision that is best for all voters.”
“This ruling hurts voters. And it unduly burdens county election budgets, which are already struggling with limited resources because the state legislature refuses to provide sufficient funding for our elections.”
The elections board has asked county boards to strictly separate and move to storage all ballots that had been printed with the We The People Party line on them. This is to avoid any possibility that the wrong ballots are sent to voters.
