WATERTOWN, Wis. — As county clerks print their ballots and deliver them to the more than 1,800 municipal clerks that administer Wisconsin elections, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still trying to get his name off them.
Kennedy filed on the Wisconsin deadline for independent candidates Aug. 6 but ended his presidential bid Aug. 25 by endorsing former President Donald Trump.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission four days later denied his 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 filed a lawsuit challenging the commission’s decision, arguing state law doesn’t treat third-party and major-party candidates equally. The court denied his preliminary-injunction request, and the judge is scheduled to issue an oral ruling Tuesday.
County clerks must deliver the ballots to municipal clerks by the next day, since Thursday, Sept. 19 is the deadline to mail absentee ballots to voters with requests on record for the general election.
Milwaukee County Elections Director Michelle Hawley told The Post the county has more than 600,000 ballots to print, and they’ve already been sent to the printer. It would cost about $80,000 to reprint them.
She said the printer doesn’t have enough pieces of the specialized ballot paper required to reprint the ballots.
“It would take a couple of days to source the paper, and we would never meet our statutory deadlines,” Hawley warned.
It would be a “big challenge” to reprint if the court rules in favor of Kennedy, she admitted.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice asked Hawley to submit documentation to the court in Kennedy’s case regarding what steps it would need to take to remove Kennedy’s name from the more than 524 versions of ballots the county has.
The list of concerns includes one solution — stickers covering RFK Jr.’s name — gumming up the ballot machines, which have specialized sensors to weigh the ballots.
“In Wisconsin, most of the clerks have already gone to print,” Eau Claire County Clerk Sue McDonald told The Post. “Some of our [ballots] have already been circulated to municipal clerks.”
Some municipalities “already have ballots on hand” and are stuffing them in envelopes for their standing absentee-ballot requests.
Kennedy filed a petition for leave to appeal in a Waukesha County appeals court last week, asking the court to “act and act quickly,” saying “he needs the Court to address his constitutional arguments and take him off the ballot.”
If a favorable ruling for Kennedy is handed down in the next couple days, McDonald said her country also would have to reprint ballots this week.
Some municipal elections clerks have already sent the digital ballot to overseas and military voters.
Kennedy still garners 6% of the Wisconsin vote in a matchup of all the presidential candidates in Marquette Law School polling released last week. The survey also found Kennedy was the best-known of the third-party candidates on the ballot.
