Wisconsin Supreme Court keeps Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the presidential ballot

Wisconsin Supreme Court keeps Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the presidential ballot Show Caption Hide Caption RFK Jr. sues to get name off swing state ballots After suspending his presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in court trying to get his name off ballots in crucial swing states. MADISON, Wisconsin – Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be listed on Wisconsin voters’ ballots following a state Supreme Court decision Friday addressing his request to remove his name. In its ruling, the court said Kennedy’s briefing was “inadequate.” “We emphasize that we are not making any legal determinations on our own regarding the claims made by Kennedy and we are not agreeing with the circuit court’s legal conclusions on those claims,” justices wrote in the order, which was released late Friday afternoon. The court, with some justices dissenting, said it would not hear oral arguments on the case but gave Kennedy’s legal team until noon Sept. 21 to file a brief no longer than 20 pages on the matter. Kennedy filed the lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission earlier this month in Dane County, arguing independent candidates are treated unfairly because they operate under different deadlines from party-aligned candidates when it comes to ballot access. His request to be removed from Wisconsin’s ballot, however, came as he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the presidential ballot in New York. Party-affiliated candidates had until 5 p.m. on Sept. 3 to certify their candidacy, according to guidance from the Elections Commission, while independent candidates had until 5 p.m. on Aug. 6. Election clerks faced a deadline last week to send absentee ballots to voters with requests on file, and hundreds of thousands of ballots listing Kennedy’s name have been mailed out by clerks. The Kennedy lawsuit came just a week after the state’s election board denied a request from his campaign to be removed from the ballot after he dropped out of the presidential race last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump. Attorneys for Kennedy, and several Republican members of the elections commission at the time argued Kennedy should be able to withdraw his name before the commission officially set the ballot. On behalf of the elections commission, state Department of Justice attorneys argued Kennedy’s name has been appropriately left on the ballot. Kennedy’s request to remove his name from the ballot was barred by (state law) and so the Commission correctly denied it,” state attorneys argued. Republicans have pushed to have Kennedy’s name removed from ballots in battleground states out of concerns his presence could draw votes away from Trump. President Joe Biden, they noted, dropped out of the race on July 21 — before the party Sept. 3 deadline in Wisconsin. “While Kennedy’s appellate briefs do mention his constitutional arguments (equal protection, free speech, and freedom of association) in cursory terms, they fail to develop those arguments to even a minimal standard sufficient for us to consider their merits,” the ruling read. In Wisconsin, more Republicans than Democrats supported Kennedy, according to data from the Marquette University Law School Poll. Without any changes, there will be eight presidential candidates on Wisconsin’s ballot in November, including Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West. “Voters may cast their ballots in favor of a candidate who withdrew his candidacy, thereby losing their right to cast a meaningful vote. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/27/wisconsin-supreme-court-rfk-jr-presidential-ballot/75418737007/