An attorney for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the activist plans to appeal after a Dane County judge rejected his lawsuit to be removed from the Wisconsin ballot.
Judge Stephen Ehlke on Monday ruled state law clearly bars candidates from withdrawing from a race once they turn in nomination papers.
Ehlke ruled from the bench Monday that Kennedy had “no one to blame but himself” because he either knew about the Wisconsin statute or should’ve known. Kennedy wanted Ehlke to issue an order that would’ve resulted in clerks printing new ballots or requiring them to affix a sticker to each one blocking out his name. Ehlke found neither option feasible.
Kennedy turned in his nomination papers by the Aug. 6 deadline for independent candidates only to withdraw from the race Aug. 23, and Ehlke found the independent was essentially asking the court to create an exception to state law for him.
“However, courts are required to apply the law as written, not as some party wishes it were written,” Ehlke said.
The decision was the latest legal development in Kennedy’s efforts to get off the ballot in swing states following his decision last month to drop out and back Donald Trump. The North Carolina Supreme Court ordered his name removed there and ballots reprinted. Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected the activist’s attempt to get off the ballot in that swing state.
Ehlke noted Kennedy had also sued in New York trying to ensure he was included on that state’s presidential ballot. Ehlke said Kennedy argued in the New York courts that he would be irreparably harmed if he was left off that ballot there, and then the same in Wisconsin if he was kept on the swing state’s ballot.
“This is quite obviously contradictory. Both things cannot be reasonably true,” Ehlke said.
Ehlke earlier this month rejected Kennedy’s request for an order removing him from Wisconsin ballots without first hearing from the state’s Elections Commission, which voted 5-1 to put him on them. Kennedy then asked the conservative 2nd District Court of Appeals in Waukesha to take his case and grant his request to be taken off the ballot. But the court put that case on hold until Ehlke issued his ruling.
Ehlke originally planned to issue a decision tomorrow. But he moved up his decision by a day in acknowledgment of the looming deadlines to deliver ballots to voters. County clerks must have ballots printed and in the hands of local election officials by Wednesday. Municipal clerks must then send ballots by Thursday to voters who have an absentee request on file.
According to court documents in the case, some clerks already started sending ballots to voters last week. Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said in a deposition the city of Madison alone has 26,200 absentee ballot requests.
Note: This item was updated Sept. 17, 2024, at 8:53 a.m.
