CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court has ordered the state's ballots in the November Presidential election to be reprinted without Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name.
The order was issued on Monday in a 4-3 decision.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) originally forced Kennedy to remain on the ballot despite his withdrawal from the race and pledged support to former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
"We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State," the ruling said. "But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count."
On Friday, North Carolina’s intermediate-level Court of Appeals issued an order granting Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name, upending plans in the state just as officials were about to begin sending out the nation’s first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The court — a three-judge panel ruling unanimously — also told a trial judge to order the State Board of Elections to distribute ballots without Kennedy’s name on them. No legal explanation was given.
The NCSBE has not commented on Monday's ruling.
The decision comes at the expense of taxpayers with a price tag officials say could be in the hundreds of thousands.
"The counties are going to be the ones that have to foot the bill to now reprint these ballots," Cynthia Wallace with the New Rural Project said, "and if your tax base is already low and you’re adding this extra burden on these rural counties are they going to be able to fully support this important election?”
Avery County Manager Phillip Barrier says they're expecting to spend as much as $7,000 to reprint the ballots after already spending thousands the first time. They're shifting funds to make it happen.
"It will take monies that we were going to spend on possibly travel or some kind of training," Barrier said. "The companies in the state that are certified to print the ballots are going to have to do a lot of overtime is what I understand to get the ballots printed for all the 100 counties. ... There’s going to be about a 25% cost increase.”
Rowan County leaders mirrored Barrier's message, saying the additional cost would impact their budget too.
"At this time we are focused on getting new absentee ballots printed and have ordered those," Rowan County Elections Director Sharon Main said in a statement. "We are currently working to get the sample ballots updated to the new version and updates to information on our website. Although there is not a fixed cost to these items it will take staff time. We do not expect any further delays and are working diligently to get back up to speed and are confident we will be ready for voters."
It's unclear if the decision will affect the early voting timeline, though Barrier says it's possible as the few ballot providers in the state work through requests from every county.
While inconvenient, he joins other election officials who say they will be ready by Election Day.