North Carolina will begin mailing absentee ballots on Sept. 20, two weeks after the originally scheduled date, following a successful lawsuit from former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Hill reported.
Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ordered the state to remove Kennedy's name, the We The People Party line, and former vice presidential nominee Nicole Shanahan's name from general election ballots following their court challenge. Kennedy had sued the state to remove his name from the ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
"This schedule is only possible because of the hard work of elections professionals across this state that will continue throughout the next week," said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. "Because of them, we expect to meet the federal deadline for ballot delivery, and North Carolinians can finally start voting in this important election."
The election board noted that more than 166,000 voters, including over 13,600 military and overseas voters, have requested ballots in North Carolina. The statement said the cost to reprint the thousands of ballots will be close to $400,000.