It's only been four days since a judge in Michigan ordered that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name be kept on the ballot in Michigan. I shared some of my thoughts on that development at the time and the seemingly obvious partisan gamesmanship that was playing out. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking toward the witching hour in terms of printing the ballots and moving forward, so it appeared that there might not be much that could be done. Let that be yet another lesson to me in terms of the three-ring political circus we're all watching unfold in 2024. Last night, appeals courts in Michigan and North Carolina both ruled that Kennedy must be removed from the ballot and that the mailing of ballots be put on hold while that change is processed. Assuming these rulings stand (a big assumption at this point), these developments are being seen as a potentially significant boost to Donald Trump in two critical swing states. (CNBC)

Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not appear on ballots in North Carolina and Michigan, appeals courts ruled in two separate decisions Friday.

Election authorities in the two swing states previously decided that Kennedy's name would remain on their ballots, rejecting a request from Kennedy to withdraw from the race.

Friday's rulings are good news for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. In North Carolina and Michigan, Trump polls better in a two-way race against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris than in a six-candidate race, according to polling averages from RealClearPolling.

Up until last night, all of these decisions were being juggled in the Old North State by the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Unlike Michigan, North Carolina had already begun printing ballots with RFK and his running mate listed on them. They were scheduled to be sent for mailing beginning yesterday, but now that process is on hold. In Michigan, the call originally went against Kennedy because of an obscure state law, which says minor party candidates cannot withdraw from the presidential race. The appeals court clearly disagreed with the premise of that law, so they will need to redo the ballot layout yet again. That law will probably require a second look by the courts as well.

I had my own arguments for how the courts were handling both of these situations and you can go back and read them at the link above if you wish. Not a lot has changed in light of these appeals court rulings as far as I'm concerned. No candidate should be blocked from withdrawing from the ballot if they have concluded that they are fighting for a hopeless cause. But at the same time, both RFK and his spokespeople have made it clear that he doesn't want to withdraw from the ballot in all states. He only wants to do it in states where his absence is more likely to benefit Trump. That sounds a lot more like election interference than a case of a failed candidate taking his ball and going home.

These latest developments also provide yet another persuasive argument against mass mail-in voting and ludicrously long periods of early voting. North Carolina set their early voting window to such a ridiculously early date that ballots were supposed to be going out yesterday. (Some of them may have actually gone out, but we won't know that for a while yet.) There will be people filling out and mailing in ballots when they still don't know with any degree of certainty who all of the available choices will be. They will be voting before there has even been a single debate between the two major party candidates. Once those ballots are filled out and returned they can't be pulled back or recast. (Well, unless you happen to be an illegal migrant.) Why in the world would you want anyone voting this early?

No matter who winds up winning, the 2024 presidential election should have a huge asterisk next to it in the history books. We have one major party that threw its default candidate who won the primary over the side of its sinking ship and allowed a handful of party elders to pick a replacement effectively on a Zoom call. The other party's candidate spent more time in courtrooms and dodging gag orders than he did on the campaign trail. This is an embarrassing spectacle that speaks poorly of our vaunted belief in supposed democracy and "the will of the people" with equal justice under the law.