WATERTOWN, Wis. — A Wisconsin court granted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appeal to be removed from the state’s presidential ballot after a lower court denied his petition Monday — and a top official from another party filed a brief backing the ex-candidate.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission asked the state Supreme Court Thursday to bypass the lower court and take up Kennedy’s appeal immediately, even as thousands of ballots have already been mailed to voters.
Records show clerks sent the thousands of ballots to Wisconsin voters with requests on file to comply with the state’s Sept. 19 deadline, but the election commission’s website warns this data may not be complete or accurate, and ballots marked as sent may not have entered the mail system yet.
Kennedy filed on the Wisconsin deadline for independent candidates Aug. 6 but ended his presidential bid Aug. 23, opting instead to endorse the Republican in the race, former President Donald Trump.
As The Post reported, four days later the commission denied Kennedy’s request to be taken off the ballot, citing state law that says the name of a person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot “shall appear upon the ballot except in case of death of the person.”
Kennedy’s petition argued state law treats third-party candidates unfairly and unequally, citing an earlier deadline to file for ballot status.
Clerks were printing ballots and delivering them to municipal clerks when Kennedy’s petition, which he filed Sept 3, was denied Monday.
Concerns from local officials about removing Kennedy’s name from the ballot include the costs and logistics of reprinting ballots or stickers covering Kennedy’s name gumming up ballot machines on Election Day.
In his response brief to the court, Kennedy asserted that since Wisconsin law allows for the use of stickers on ballots, it is up to the state’s election commission to ensure stickers can be put on ballots, including testing ballot machines.
“Kennedy is not seeking to create any more confusion than what the Commission has already wrought,” Kennedy’s attorney states in the filing, saying the relief sought is for ballots that have not yet been sent.
Asked about concerns clerks in Wisconsin and North Carolina have raised, Kennedy told The Post Saturday night in Glendale, Ariz., they should be directed to the Democratic National Committee, which spent “tens of millions of dollars fighting to keep me off the ballot.”
Now, Kennedy says, the DNC is “spending tens of millions of dollars to keep me on the ballot, and that has caused delays, which is leading to inconvenience for the states.”
Kennedy isn’t the only candidate battling the DNC over ballot status.
A DNC operative filed a lawsuit last month alleging Green Party candidate Jill Stein does not qualify for ballot status in Wisconsin. That lawsuit was denied, but so far the DNC has not taken legal action to keep Kennedy on the ballot.
In a surprising twist, Michael J. White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, who was involved in efforts to keep Stein on the ballot in the Badger State, filed an amicus brief in support of Kennedy’s appeal Tuesday — though not on behalf of the Green Party but as an individual.
“Civil rights matter the most when you give them to people that you do not agree with and you do not like,” White told The Post.
“This is not a partisan issue for me. This is about equality before the law and the relevant [statute] is not giving equal status to all citizens in all parties.”
“I am not standing up for Robert F Kennedy. I am appealing to the court that we should have equality before the law. I am an individual supporting civil rights,” White concluded.
Cameron Arcand contributed to this report.
