I was told that it’s not the people’s will if a candidate drops out and is replaced by another.
It is interesting that state Republicans have been pushing all over the local news today that it is perfectly acceptable for the party to replace Mark Robinson as the gubernatorial candidate -- outlining the state GOP has defined procedures on how to do so.
The amusing part is that these are the same state GOP clowns who were squawking that it is undemocratic for Kamala Harris to replace Biden because she did not win any primaries -- even though the replacement procedures used by the Democratic National party fully aligned with their written documentation on the candidate replacement scenario.
The real issue facing the state GOP in North Carolina is that any replacement of Mark Robinson must be done by 11:59pm EDT tonight and Robinson is refusing to step down.
The Raleigh N&O had an article today regarding replacing Robinson as the gubernatorial candidate.
Could Mark Robinson be replaced as NC Republicans’ candidate for governor?
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article292742104.html
After
CNN published a report tying Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to graphic, racist and offensive comments made on a pornography message board, at least one Republican candidate has
called for him to drop out of the governor’s race.
But the North Carolina State Board of Elections says any candidate wishing to resign would have to do so by 11:59 p.m. today, Thursday.
A spokesperson for Robinson said he has no plans to drop out. In a
video released on X prior to CNN’s report, Robinson described the forthcoming story as containing “salacious tabloid lies” and said, “we are staying in this race.”
Thursday is the deadline for candidates to resign because absentee ballots are set to go out to military and overseas voters on Friday morning, following several weeks of delays due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s legal battle to withdraw his North Carolina candidacy.
Those ballots already have Robinson’s name on them — and any further delay to the mailing process would place the state in violation of federal law, which mandates that absentee ballots be sent out to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21.
This means it’s highly unlikely that ballots would be reprinted with a new Republican gubernatorial candidate.
However,
state law says that if a gubernatorial candidate is replaced because he or she “dies, resigns, or for any reason becomes ineligible or disqualified,” the executive committee of the candidate’s party can nominate a replacement.
In that scenario, any votes that Robinson got in the election would go to a replacement selected by the North Carolina GOP’s executive committee.
The party is prohibited by state law from selecting a replacement who already ran in the same race in this year’s primary. That means State Treasurer Dale Folwell and attorney Bill Graham would not be allowed to replace Robinson.
Other states, including Georgia and Louisiana, have laws allowing the state to post notices at polling places if there is a last-minute candidate withdrawal that is not reflected on the ballot.
This scenario was addressed in the state
Supreme Court’s recent ruling on RFK Jr.’s ballot withdrawal lawsuit.
“I see nothing in our state’s election laws that would prohibit a similar notice at polling locations,” Republican Justice Richard Dietz
wrote in his dissent. “These notices also could be sent to voters who requested absentee ballots. Indeed, I think our constitutional protections of voting rights would compel the State Board of Elections to take these steps.”
