Sept. 3 (UPI) — A Michigan judge ruled Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must stay on the state’s Nov. 5 ballot, rejecting the former presidential candidate’s last-minute request to remove his name from contention in the state.
Kennedy, 70, was running for president as a long-shot independent candidate, but following months of campaigning and a drive that placed his name on nearly two dozen ballots he suspended his campaign on Aug. 23.
In withdrawing, he announced he would remove his name from ballots in 10 battleground states and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump for president.
Kennedy had secured access to Michigan’s ballot as the Natural Law Party nominee, and after his withdrawal he had asked the state to remove his name from contention — a request that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson rejected on the grounds that it was against state law to do so.
He then asked the court to intervene, with Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates siding Tuesday with Benson.
“Elections are not just games, the Secretary of State (SOS) is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office,” Yates wrote in the four-page order obtained by Michigan Public Radio.
“The SOS rejected the eleventh-hour change of heart, so plaintiff has come to the Court at the very last minute seeking immediate relief on the basis that the SOS has violated Michigan law in denying his request to be removed from the ballot. Because the Court concludes that the SOS acted well within the bounds of the law, the Court shall deny the requests of the plaintiff.”
Kennedy had argued before that court that he had timely submitted his withdrawal from candidacy, citing state law, but Yates said the law cited “does not provide the basis for the SOS’s obligation to print plaintiff’s name on the 2024 general-election ballot.”
Yates then pointed to another state law that explicitly states that a candidate nominated by a minor party “shall not be permitted to withdraw.”
“Permitting a candidate to unilaterally withdraw after the August primary election date leaves the party without a candidate on the general-election ballot, so plaintiff’s request to withdraw at this late date is just a self-serving act that would cause harm to the party that nominated him by leaving the party with no candidate at the top of the ticket,” Yates said.
Yates continued that the court must balance Kennedy’s interests of wanting to withdraw from the race with those of the party that endorsed him.
If Kennedy had secured access to the ballot under his own name, then he could unilaterally seek removing himself from the ballot but he is on the ballot as a party’s nominee after having accepted its nomination.
“The Court must deny relief to plaintiff because ‘[c]andidates so nominated and certified [by a minor party] shall not be permitted to withdraw,” Yates said, quoting state law.
Last week, Wisconsin election officials had also said that Kennedy could not be removed from their state’s ballot, citing state rules that prevent him from exiting the ballot.
Kennedy has also sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections after it denied his request to remove his name as a third-party candidate.
However, he has withdrawn his candidacy from other states, including Arizona, according to its secretary of state.