{"id":12749,"date":"2024-09-17T15:45:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12749"},"modified":"2024-09-17T18:55:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T18:55:42","slug":"judge-rules-kennedy-will-remain-on-wisconsin-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=12749","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rules Kennedy Will Remain on Wisconsin Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/judge-rules-kennedy-will-remain-on-wisconsin-ballot\/tcsquare\/2024\/09\/17\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux<\/h5>\n

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A Dane County Circuit court ruled against former Independent party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., siding with the Wisconsin Election Commission\u2019s decision to keep Kennedy\u2019s name on the state\u2019s ballot this November, despite his withdrawal from the race and request for removal.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s lawsuit argued that, absent a compelling reason, the state\u2019s different treatment for third party candidates violates the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment. It claimed the different deadlines for ballot withdrawal for major party candidates versus third-party candidates \u2013 Sept. 3 for the former and Aug. 6 for the latter \u2013 are unlawfully discriminatory.<\/p>\n

Judge Stephen E. Ehlke disagreed, saying Kennedy\u2019s request was essentially that the WEC ignore Wisconsin election law, which only allows a certified candidate to exit the ballot in case of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourts are required to apply the law as written, not as some party wishes it were written,\u201d Ehlke said. \u201cUnder the statute, the commission clearly was correct when it certified Mr. Kennedy for inclusion on the November ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ehlke also said Kennedy\u2019s First and Fourteenth amendment rights were not violated, given that \u201cthere is no constitutional right to have your name removed from a ballot after you voluntarily submitted your nomination papers with full knowledge that the statutes don\u2019t allow you to withdraw your name.\u201d<\/p>\n

After withdrawing from the presidential race and endorsing former President Donald Trump, Kennedy had sent a letter Aug. 23 to the WEC, requesting his name be removed from the ballot.<\/p>\n

But in its certification of presidential candidates five days later, the WEC voted 5-1 to put Kennedy\u2019s name on the ballot, saying he had missed the Aug. 6 deadline for third party candidates to withdraw from the General Election. Following the decision, county clerks were authorized to begin printing ballots and Kennedy filed his lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line here is that Mr. Kennedy has no one to blame but himself if he didn\u2019t want to be on the ballot,\u201d Ehlke said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux is an apprentice reporter covering Michigan and Wisconsin for The Center Square<\/a>, under the mentorship of Midwest Regional Editor J.D. Davidson. Her work focuses on election-related news in these two states. Previously, she interned at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se graduated with a major in politics from Hillsdale College in May of 2024, where she produced award-winning radio journalism.
Photo \u201cRobert F. Kennedy Jr.\u201d by Gage Skidmore<\/a>. CC BY-SA 2.0.
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The post Judge Rules Kennedy Will Remain on Wisconsin Ballot<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/judge-rules-kennedy-will-remain-on-wisconsin-ballot\/tcsquare\/2024\/09\/17\/ by Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Boudreaux \u00a0 A Dane County Circuit court…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12750,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12749\/revisions\/12750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}