Michigan clerks scramble as RFK Jr. pushes to be removed from ballot days before printing deadline
PONTIAC, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) — With 49 days until the election, a federal judge on Tuesday considered whether to keep or remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name from the Michigan ballot for the upcoming presidential election.
It came after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that he would have to stay on the ballot.
The legal battles are happening as deadlines for printing and distributing those ballots are fast approaching.
Under federal law, printed ballots must be delivered to city and township clerks by Saturday, Sept. 21st, 45 days before election day.
"People might think, oh, that seems that's you've got plenty of time. We're printing a million ballots. That's just in this county. You know, we have 83 counties, and there's only a couple of printers," Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown told CBS News Detroit.
The original plan was to send the ballots to the printers on Sept. 6, however, RFK Jr. went to court arguing that even though he had withdrawn from the presidential race, keeping his name on the ballot could confuse voters and violate his constitutional rights by making him appear as if he were still a candidate.
"It wouldn't just be a logistical nightmare. It would be that I wouldn't be in compliance with the law, and that's a concern, and that we would be disenfranchising voters because they wouldn't have their ballots at the time that they're supposed to would," Brown said.
Her counterpart on the opposite side of the state, Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck, points out that once election administrators receive the printed ballots, there's a whole lot more to do.
"They begin a process where they are essentially putting those ballots into envelopes, doing a workflow process that ensures the accuracy. You know, the numbered stub that's on the attached to every ballot has to match the numbered stub that's on the outer envelope that goes to the voter," Roebuck said. "While I believe litigation, it's important to have a day in court, I really believe that that litigation should be happening earlier in the process than it is now."
"It's a political game, but it's very stressful. Listen, election administrators are already, already under a lot of stress. This is not helping," Brown said.