Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on the Michigan presidential ballot

BY ANNA LIZ NICHOLS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—Although Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has bowed out of the presidential race and endorsed former President Donald Trump, he will appear on the ballot in Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday after Kennedy pushed to have it removed.

It’s a result that could harm the Trump campaign, as conservative voting could now be split between Trump and Kennedy, leaving Democratic candidate Vice President Harris in a better situation in a state where the race is expected to be close.

Kennedy was running as an independent candidate, earning the Natural Law Party’s nomination in Michigan. As he was suspending his campaign activities in August, Kennedy said he would be removing his name from the ballot in 10 battleground states where he would be a “spoiler” or a candidate that would split votes from like-minded voters between multiple candidates, therefore weakening multiple campaigns.

But Kennedy’s name will remain on the ballot, despite the Michigan Court of Appeals siding with Kennedy three days ago saying that the Michigan Secretary of State had “no basis to deny plaintiff’s request to withdraw his name from the ballot.”

Previously, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates sided with Michigan’s Secretary of State three days before the Court of Appeals saying, “elections are not just games, and the Secretary of State (SOS) is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office.”

The decision to keep Kennedy on the ballot split the Michigan Supreme Court with the majority opinion saying Kennedy was not entitled to “extraordinary remedy of a writ of mandamus” to have his name removed.

The majority opinion reads that Kennedy, “has neither pointed to any source of law that prescribes and defines a duty to withdraw a candidate’s name from the ballot nor demonstrated his clear legal right to performance of this specific duty.”

Democratic-nominated Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote in a concurring opinion that she had concerns about the Michigan’s Natural Law Party having representation if Kennedy removed his name.

“Nominated by the party in April, Kennedy then in August e-mailed the director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections to request that his name be withdrawn from the ballot,” Welch wrote

“Shortly thereafter, the Natural Law Party chairperson reached out to the director of elections, indicating that the Natural Law Party opposed plaintiff’s request. The chairperson opined that the Natural Law Party would face severe prejudice if its candidate were removed from the ballot,” Welch wrote.

There is no statute that directly bars a presidential candidate from withdrawing their candidacy and no “no practical” reason to deny Kennedy’s request before ballots have been printed, Republican-nominated Justices Brian Zahra and David Viviano wrote in a dissenting opinion.

“There is, however, a significant cost to the integrity of the election: the voters will be improperly denied a choice between persons who are actually candidates, and who are willing to serve if elected,” the dissenting opinion reads. “There is great distrust in the American voting system. The ballots printed as a result of the Court’s decision will have the potential to confuse the voters, distort their choices, and pervert the true popular will and affect the outcome of the election. In short, the Court’s ruling will do nothing to rebuild the public’s trust in the fairness and accuracy of our elections.

The dissenting justices went further by saying that “countless Michigan voters may be deluded and deceived into casting their ballots for a candidate who has no intention to hold the office.”

“We can only hope that the Secretary’s misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications,” Zahra and Viviano wrote.

READ MORE: How third-party candidates could help Donald Trump win Michigan

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.