Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sues to pull name from Wisconsin's presidential ballot
WASHINGTON – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing the Wisconsin Elections Commission in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot in the battleground state just two months before the presidential election.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Dane County, argued independent candidates such as Kennedy are treated unfairly by the elections commission because they operate under different deadlines from party-aligned candidates when it comes to ballot access.
"In First Amendment parlance: it has compelled him to not just speak, but to associate with a cause he doesn’t want to be part of," attorneys for Kennedy wrote of WEC in the suit. "In doing so, Kennedy’s rights have been violated. He has not been treated fairly or equally with the other presidential candidates who declared and ran for the presidency and have since wanted to withdraw."
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. Aug. 6. Kennedy ended his campaign on Aug. 23.
The filing comes just a week after the state's election board denied a request from the Kennedy campaign to be removed from the ballot after he dropped out of the presidential race last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump. A spokesman for WEC declined to comment on the filing Wednesday.
Attorneys for Kennedy, who ran as an independent, and several Republican members of the commission at the time argued Kennedy should be able to withdraw his name from the ballot before the commission officially set the ballot. But Wisconsin law holds that anyone who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot — which Kennedy did — cannot decline nomination. The only exception to that provision is "in case of death of the person," according to the law.
The commission voted 5-1 to keep Kennedy on the ballot after Democratic commissioners blocked their Republican counterparts from removing him in an earlier vote.
"The only way he gets to not be on the ballot is to up and die, which I'm assuming he has no plans on doing," WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, said last week. "The statute is absolutely clear on this."
Kennedy's attorneys centered their argument around the differing dates for party-affiliated and independent candidates to certify their declaration of candidacy. President Joe Biden, they noted, dropped out of the race on July 21 — before the party Sept. 3 deadline in Wisconsin.
The filing claimed both Kennedy and Biden have been "lifelong politicians" and said "both are dynamic speakers, and both have vast experiences within government — each having served decades in Congress." Kennedy, however, never served in Congress.
"The facts alleged make it plain: there’s a different set of rules for Kennedy than Biden; there’s a different playbook for the Democrats than for Independents," they wrote. "That different set violates the promise of equal protection for candidates. And it violates Kennedy’s rights to free speech and association."
Wisconsin is not the only battleground state where Kennedy appears likely to remain on the ballot. Elections officials in Michigan and North Carolina have also said Kennedy cannot withdraw from the ballots. A judge in Michigan this week ruled Kennedy must remain on the ballot, though Kennedy's lawsuit against North Carolina's elections board is pending.
The push from Republicans to remove Kennedy's name from the ballot in battleground states critical to November's election stems from fears his presence could draw votes away from Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In Wisconsin, more Republicans than Democrats supported Kennedy, according to data from the Marquette University Law School Poll.
During a trip to northeastern Wisconsin last week, Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, Trump's running mate, took aim at WEC's decision. He claimed, without acknowledging Wisconsin law, that "a bunch of bureaucrats are going to keep (Kennedy's) name on the ballot because they think it will hurt Donald Trump."
There will be eight presidential candidates on Wisconsin's ballot in November, including Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: RFK Jr. sues to remove name from Wisconsin's presidential ballot