The conservative 2nd District Court of Appeals has agreed to decide on an accelerated schedule whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should’ve been granted an order taking him off Wisconsin’s presidential ballot.
Wednesday’s appeals court ruling reflects the “extreme time pressure on this case,” and the judges want briefing wrapped up by Friday.
The accelerated schedule comes as county clerks faced a deadline Wednesday to deliver printed ballots to local election officials. Municipal clerks then must send absentee ballots by Thursday to those who have a request on file, and court records show some are already in the hands of voters.
A Dane County judge on Monday rejected Kennedy’s request to be removed from the ballot, citing state law that doesn’t allow candidates who have turned in nomination papers to run for office to reverse course and pull out of a race.
Kennedy’s lawyers are appealing Judge Stephen Ehlke’s denial of their request for a temporary injunction that sought to require the Elections Commission to leave the independent off the Wisconsin ballot and to prevent the mailing of any absentee ballots until a ruling on the merits of the case.
With ballots already being printed and mailed, Kennedy’s lawyers proposed to Ehlke that local election officials could be required to affix stickers to ballots blocking out his name. That would avoid having to begin the printing process over again if Ehlke had ruled in his favor.
Under state law, clerks may affix stickers to ballots to block out the name of a candidate who has died.
The appeals court asked the parties to address several issues:
- Does it matter that election officials haven’t tested voting equipment to see if they can properly tabulate ballots with stickers on them?
- If there was a vacancy in a race for statewide office due to death, would stickers with the name of a substitute candidate have to be placed on ballots statewide?
- Is the Elections Commission correct that municipal clerks have discretion in whether they apply stickers to ballots in the event that a candidate has died?
The court directed Kennedy to file a brief by 11 a.m. Thursday with the Elections Commission required to file a response by 11 a.m. Friday. Under the court’s order, Kennedy will have until 4 p.m. Friday to file a response to the Elections Commission’s brief.
The case is being heard by: Mark Gundrum, the presiding judge for the 2nd District and a former GOP lawmaker; Maria Lazar, a conservative; and Lisa Neubauer, who ran for the state Supreme Court in 2019 as a liberal.
