The battle over whether the state of North Carolina will have to remove independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name from the ballot has now delayed early voting in the state, which was set to begin on September 6.
On that very day, the Court of Appeals ruled that the election board would be required to take Kennedy's name off ballots, overruling the state election board's 3-2 decision against doing so.
The election board appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, but began the process of printing new absentee ballots and reprogramming voting machines.
It was not clear when the Supreme Court would make a decision on the case.
The election board cited as its reason for not removing Kennedy's name that it had already started printing the ballots, but it waited six days after Kennedy requested the action before making the decision.
The election board has a majority of Democrats, and it is believed that leaving Kennedy's name on the ballot would hurt Republicans more than Democrats.
State attorneys have said it would take two weeks to reprint the ballots so they can be distributed and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Vendors have been instructed to preserve the original ballots in case the Supreme Court rules against removing Kennedy's name.
More than 136,000 North Carolina voters have requested mail-in ballots so far. They have until October 29 to do so.
Ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
Kennedy suspended his campaign on August 23 and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
He said then that he would remove his name from ballots in swing states where a close vote could be affected by his ballot appearance. In deep blue and red states, he did not bother making the request.
Kennedy also won a battle to get his name off the ballot in Michigan with a similar appeals court ruling.
The deadline to send military ballots overseas in Michigan is September 21, which means there isn't much time to reprint ballots in that state either.
In Wisconsin, a hearing will be held next week to determine whether to remove Kennedy's name.
