MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name will remain on the state's presidential ballot, upholding a lower court's ruling that candidates can only be removed from the ballot if they die.
The decision from the liberal-controlled court marks the latest twist in Kennedy’s quest to get his name off ballots in key battleground states where the race between Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is close. Kennedy’s attorney in Wisconsin, Joseph Bugni, didn’t immediately return email and voicemail messages Friday.
The decision came after more than 418,000 absentee ballots have already been sent to voters. As of Thursday, nearly 28,000 had been returned, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump. Earlier this month, a divided North Carolina Supreme Court kept him off the ballot there, while the Michigan Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision and kept him on.
Kennedy filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin on Sept. 3 seeking a court order removing him from the ballot. He argued that third-party candidates are discriminated against because state law treats them differently than Republicans and Democrats running for president.
He pointed out that Republicans and Democrats have until 5 p.m. on the first Tuesday in September before an election to certify their presidential nominee but that independent candidates like himself can only withdraw before an Aug. 6 deadline for submitting nomination papers.
Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke ruled Sept. 16 that Wisconsin law clearly states that once candidates file valid nomination papers, they remain on the ballot unless they die. The judge added that many election clerks had already sent ballots out for printing with Kennedy’s name on them. Clerks had until Thursday to get ballots to voters who had requested them.
Kennedy’s attorneys had said that clerks could cover his name with stickers, the standard practice when a candidate dies. Ehlke rejected that idea, saying it would be a logistical nightmare for clerks and that it is not clear whether the stickers would gum up tabulating machines. He also predicted lawsuits if clerks failed to completely cover Kennedy's name or failed to affix a sticker on some number of ballots.
The presence of independent and third-party candidates on the ballot could be a key factor in Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by between about 5,700 to 23,000 votes.
In 2016, Green Party nominee Jill Stein got just over 31,000 votes in Wisconsin — more than Trump’s winning margin of just under 23,000 votes. Some Democrats blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year.