Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign failed – but his attempt not to be a spoilsport in North Carolina and Michigan seems to be more successful at the moment.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals made a last-minute decision Friday to remove Kennedy’s name from presidential ballots, setting off a mad scramble to reprint ballots and mail them to voters.

In Michigan, an appeals court also ruled on Friday that Kennedy’s name must be removed from the ballot as a candidate of the Natural Law Party. The Michigan Secretary of State’s office announced it would appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Kennedy has been fighting to keep his name off the ballot in swing states since he dropped out of the vote and endorsed Donald Trump. Speaking to reporters after his endorsement, Kennedy said his poll numbers consistently showed that he was “likely to hand the election to the Democrats” in the swing states where he was on the ballot.

North Carolina has become one such swing state. Trump won in 2020 by 1.3 percentage points, or about 75,000 votes. It was the closest state in which Trump had the upper hand. Third-party candidates won about 82,000 votes in North Carolina this year.

Michigan is also considered an important swing state: According to the Project 538 poll results, Kamala Harris is two percentage points ahead of Trump.

In North Carolina, state law requires the first mail-in ballots to be mailed or delivered no later than 60 days before the general election, making Friday the deadline.

That deadline has now passed, as reprinting the ballots will take weeks. The court also ordered a pause in ballot distribution. Lawyers for the Democratic Party fought the ruling and may appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Paul Cox, general counsel for the North Carolina Board of Elections, sent an email to county election officials after the ruling, asking them to keep the current ballots with Kennedy’s name on them. More than 2.9 million mail-in ballots and ballots for in-person voting have been printed so far.

“Do not mail out ballots today,” Cox wrote. “This will obviously be a major undertaking for everyone. Our attorneys are reviewing the order and determining how to proceed. No decision has been made on whether to appeal this ruling. Bottom line: continue to hold onto your outgoing mail-in ballots — both military and overseas citizen ballots and ballots for civilian voters. We will update you promptly on any further developments.”

More than 130,000 absentee ballots have been requested so far. North Carolina is home to many major military bases, including Camp Lejeune and the Marine Corps’ Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg). An unusually large number of residents serve in other states or overseas.

The Democratic majority on the North Carolina Board of Elections rejected Kennedy’s initial request to remove his name from the ballot, arguing that it was too late to print the ballots and code the counting machines. Kennedy then filed a lawsuit.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt on Thursday rejected Kennedy’s attempt to keep his name off the ballot, prompting him to appeal. Meanwhile, Holt urged election officials not to mail out absentee ballots until noon Friday.

Since suspending his campaign, Kennedy has been trying to get his name removed from the ballot in several states where a close race between Trump and Harris is expected.

Kennedy filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin on Wednesday to have his name removed from the presidential ballot after the state’s election commission voted to keep him on the list.

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