{"id":2336594,"date":"2024-09-04T12:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rfk-jr-must-stay-on-michigan-ballot-judge-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-09-04T12:29:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T16:29:18","slug":"rfk-jr-must-stay-on-michigan-ballot-judge-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rfk-jr-must-stay-on-michigan-ballot-judge-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. must stay on Michigan ballot: Judge &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frfk-jr-must-stay-on-michigan-ballot-judge-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2336594&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Robert\u2064 F. Kennedy Jr.&#8217;s attempt \u200cto remove his name from \u200dMichigan&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/company-leading-arizona-recount-asks-court-that-procedures-be-kept-secret\/\" title=\"Company Leading Arizona Recount Asks Court That Procedures Be Kept Secret\">general election ballot<\/a> has been\u2063 denied by a state\u2062 judge. After suspending his presidential\u200d campaign and endorsing former President Donald \u2064Trump, Kennedy sought to\u200c withdraw to avoid splitting the Republican\u2062 vote. However,\u200c Michigan Court of \u2064Claims Judge\u200b Christopher Yates ruled that \u200delection laws do not allow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sarah-palin-advances-to-november-election-for-house-seat\/\" title=\"Sarah Palin Advances to November Election for House Seat\">minor party candidates<\/a>\u200c to withdraw once nominated, as was the case for Kennedy after his nomination by the Natural Law Party. The judge \u2063emphasized that elections are serious \u2062matters, and the Secretary of State acted\u2064 within legal boundaries, reinforcing that the \u200ddeadline \u200dfor \u2062nominating conventions has passed. The decision aligns with\u2062 existing\u2063 Michigan law, which states that\u200c candidates \u200dendorsed by minor parties cannot simply opt out of the ballot.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">RFK Jr. must stay on Michigan ballot, judge rules: &lsquo;Elections are not just games&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1745042\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Former independent presidential candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> will remain on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/michigan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Michigan<\/a>&rsquo;s general election ballot after a judge in the state sided with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who said it was too late under state law for his name to be removed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Kennedy suspended his campaign last month and endorsed former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Donald Trump<\/a>. Since then, he has tried to take his name off the ballot in swing states so as not to take away votes from the Republican nominee, but he has urged voters in solidly blue and red states to still vote for him.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Elections are not just games, and the Secretary of State (SOS) is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office,&rdquo; Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates wrote Tuesday in a four-page opinion.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Because the Court concludes that the SOS acted well within the bounds of the law, the Court shall deny the requests by plaintiff for (relief),&rdquo; Yates continued.<\/p>\n<p>The judge pointed out that Michigan election law is clear that minor party presidential candidates cannot withdraw from the ballot, which Kennedy qualified for after he was nominated by the Natural Law Party. Yates said the deadline for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-third-parties-want-supreme-court-to-reverse-impossible-2024-ballot-access-rules\/\" title=\"NY third parties seek Supreme Court reversal of &#039;impossible&#039; 2024 ballot access rules.\">minor political parties<\/a> to hold nominating conventions has already passed.<\/p>\n<p>Benson has previously pointed to the same law, posting on X the text of the law saying &ldquo;Candidates who are nominated and accept a minor party&rsquo;s nomination &lsquo;shall not be permitted to withdraw.&#8217;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hi <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RudyGiuliani?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RudyGiuliani<\/a> &#128075;<\/p>\n<p>I know you&#8217;re no longer a licensed attorney because you made several &ldquo;demonstrably false and misleading statements&rdquo; about the 2020 election, so allow me to clarify Michigan law for you.<\/p>\n<p>MCL 168.686a(4): Candidates who are nominated and accept a minor party&#8217;s&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b2BHtWx3jT\">https:\/\/t.co\/b2BHtWx3jT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JocelynBenson\/status\/1830980667817013664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>It is expected that Kennedy&rsquo;s team will appeal the decision. In the original filing with the Michigan Court of Claims, Kennedy argued that &ldquo;election integrity should be the forefront objective of election bureaus and that critically includes providing accurate ballots&rdquo; and that there was &ldquo;no compelling reason&rdquo; for the state to place Kennedy&rsquo;s name on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before exiting the race, Kennedy was polling at around 2% of the vote in Michigan, which equates to about 167,820 votes. In 2016, due in part to the presence of third-party candidates, Trump narrowly beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the state by less than 1 percentage point or 10,700 votes. President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by more than 150,000 votes.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Michigan, Kennedy will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3136244\/where-third-party-candidates-on-the-ballot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>remain on the ballot <\/a>in Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin as his challenges to remove himself have failed. He successfully took his name off the ballot in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3132392\/rfk-jr-withdraws-ballot-arizona-campaign-future-announcement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Arizona<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1745042\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1745042\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on Michigan&#8217;s general election ballot, siding with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who stated that it is too late to remove his name according to state law. Although Kennedy suspended his campaign last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump, he has attempted to withdraw from the ballot in key states to avoid splitting votes with the Republican nominee while still encouraging voters in strongly partisan states to support him. Judge Christopher Yates emphasized in a four-page opinion that &#8220;Elections are not just games&#8221; and noted that the Secretary of State is not required to accommodate candidates&#8217; requests for withdrawal. He affirmed that Michigan law prohibits minor party presidential candidates from withdrawing once nominated, which applies to Kennedy since he was nominated by the Natural Law Party. The deadline for minor parties&#8217; nominating conventions has already passed, as pointed out by Benson on social media. Kennedy&#8217;s team is expected to appeal this decision; he previously argued for election integrity and questioned the necessity of including his name on the ballot despite polling at around 2% in Michigan before exiting the race\u2014equating to approximately 167,820 votes. In past elections, third-party candidates have influenced outcomes significantly; Trump won Michigan by a narrow margin in 2016 while Biden secured a larger victory there in 2020. Besides Michigan, Kennedy will also remain on ballots in Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin after unsuccessful attempts to withdraw from those states but managed to remove himself from Arizona&#8217;s ballot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2910,"featured_media":2336595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/RFK-Jr-2024--scaled-1024x682.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[33740,34069,40075,32458,32076],"class_list":["post-2336594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-court-ruling","tag-election-news","tag-michigan-ballot","tag-rfk-jr","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/RFK-Jr-2024--scaled-1024x682.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2336595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}