The North Carolina State Board of Elections will decide Thursday whether to remove third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the state’s November ballot.

After Kennedy’s newly registered party, We The People, fought for months to gain registration for the election and even defended his candidacy in court, it asked the state executive committee on Wednesday to remove Kennedy’s name from the electoral list.

The board will discuss the matter in an emergency meeting on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

The demand comes a week after Kennedy announced he would suspend his campaign and instead support the campaign of former Republican President Donald Trump. In making his announcement, Kennedy said he would remain on the ballot in states where there is no competition, but would seek to withdraw his candidacy in major swing states.

Citing internal polls, Kennedy said he wanted to be removed from those ballots because his candidacy would help Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and hurt Trump.

His request comes just before the deadline for printing ballots in North Carolina. The first mail-in ballots will be sent out on Sept. 6, and by Tuesday, more than half of the state’s 100 counties had already printed ballots, according to Pat Gannon, spokesman for the state Board of Elections.

In considering Kennedy’s request, the panel must consider “whether it is practicable to remove his name from the ballots and reprint the ballots,” Gannon said.

The board, which has a democratic majority of 3:2, initially rejected the approval of “We the People” in a group vote in June.

For this decision, board members faced a wave of criticism from Republicans and independents, who accused them of blocking third-party candidates who might have taken votes away from the Democratic candidate.

The committee later reversed its decision and allowed “We the People” to run, paving the way for Kennedy to run as a third-party candidate.

The North Carolina Democratic Party then filed a lawsuit asking a judge to invalidate Kennedy’s candidacy. The judge denied the request and allowed Kennedy to remain on the ballot.

Under the dome

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