Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on WI ballot; appeals court takes up case

MILWAUKEE - Some Wisconsin voters have already voted, and Thursday, Sept. 19 is the deadline for local clerks to mail out absentee ballots already requested.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name is still on the Wisconsin ballots, but he wants off. He dropped out of the presidential race in August, then endorsed former President Donald Trump.

On Monday, a Dane County judge ruled Kennedy would stay on the ballot. The judge said state law requires candidates to stay on the ballot unless they die.

But, on Wednesday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case.

"I’m happy to see that the appeals court is taking this into consideration and I’m hoping it will move along the lines I voted for," said Bob Spindell, a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

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The appeals court asked lawyers for specific answers about placing stickers on a ballot.

"They are certainly interesting questions," Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs said. "The ballot itself is a particular weight of paper, because remember it has to be heavy enough to safely go through the machine. You don’t want to bleed through on either side. They are made very specifically, so they have a certain weight. That weight is part of the programming. And the reason it is is because if the weight is off, the tabulator says "oh, maybe that’s two ballots." And it tells the machine, maybe we have a jam. The ballots have what are called timing marks on either side and timing marks are basically those black squares that you see around the ballot. Those timing marks are part of the programming and they create sort of the latitude and longitude for the tabulator: if you find a mark at this latitude and this longitude, that’s a vote for candidate X and if you find it at this one, it’s a vote for candidate Y.

"Placing a sticker runs the risk of addressing a problem with those timing marks because now they can’t find that location."

Kennedy’s attorneys had suggested that option – to cover his name with a sticker.

But Jacobs has her own questions.

"Those machines can get jammed. So, for example, if they don’t notice that a ballot was slightly torn when it goes into a tabulation machine, it can jam the machine," she said. "Anyone who’s ever had to undo a copy machine jam knows it’s a process that can sometimes be really frustrating, because you have to find the one little thing that’s messing everything up."

Clerks have already mailed out 295,104 absentee ballots and 119 voters have already returned them. State law requires local clerks to send ballots by Thursday to those who already requested them.

"The law is in place and the law says that on Sept. 19,  the clerks are required to mail out absentee ballots to all the persons who requested them," Jacobs said. "Then, on Sept. 21, they are required to send out absentee ballots to our uniformed and overseas voters. Clerks are going to have to proceed under the law as it exists."

"I think the situation is such that there is some leeway there," Spindell said.

The Marquette Law School poll found Kennedy getting more support from Republicans than Democrats. Earlier this month, 6% of the state favored him.

A new AARP poll of all voting ages in Wisconsin found he was getting 2%.

In this battleground state, those votes are important.

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Recent elections have been decided by less than a percentage point.

The Wisconsin Appeals Court gave deadlines for both Kennedy and the Elections Commission to file briefs. The last response is due Friday evening.

So, it's possible the appeals court could decide soon after that.

Kennedy has tried to get off other battleground ballots.

In North Carolina, his name was removed and the state reprinted ballots.

In Michigan, his name is staying.