Both the North Carolina and Michigan courts of appeals on Friday reversed prior denials of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s request that his name be removed from the general election ballots in the two highly contested swing states.

The moves in both states are legal wins for the former independent candidate, who recently dropped out to endorse President Donald Trump. The endorsement marked a significant shift for Kennedy, who has a lifelong legacy as a Democrat and a member of one of America’s most powerful political dynasties.

Since endorsing Trump, Kennedy has been trying to thread the needle, seeking to remove his name from ballots in some states in order to benefit Trump while remaining on ballots in others. But so far, Democrats have had success keeping him on the ballots where he has requested to be removed, while removing him from the ballots on which he wishes to remain. All of this follows other hard-fought legal fights Kennedy had with Democrats in his effort to obtain ballot access in the first place.

In July Democrats in North Carolina sued to keep Kennedy off the ballot out of fears he might sap more votes from Vice President Kamala Harris. But it now appears that his remaining on the ballot could take more votes from Trump — which has prompted both Democrat-led efforts to keep Kennedy on the ballot and Kennedy’s legal actions to get his name removed.

Kennedy requested last week that his name be removed from the ballots, but the request

Early voting season began Friday with a court case delaying, possibly for weeks, the first ballots that were supposed to be mailed to voters, marking the start of the drawn-out election process sure to be defined by litigation, counting disputes, and poll watcher disparities.

The court case out of North Carolina, similar to another case from Michigan, directed the state’s elections officers to remove Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name from the ballots. While North Carolina implemented an eleventh-hour delay to mailing their ballots, which was supposed to start Friday (a full 60 days before Election Day), the case is emblematic of the issues that can arise when the process for casting ballots lasts weeks instead of just one day: Some states are sending out ballots while others are still deciding which presidential candidates are going to be on them.

Labor Day traditionally serves as the turning point in an election year where Americans start paying attention to their candidates in earnest. However, now that voters in many parts of the country have an entire season to cast their ballots, elections are not being decided by a populace that is armed with the same information.

“Candidates are on trial. Voters are the jury. Fair trials and fair elections require decisions based on the same evidence,” Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, told The Federalist. “Weeks of early voting render that impossible, which is why ballot-traffickers and partisans uninterested in rational persuasion want those extra weeks. Polls show Americans support two

The widely used video platform YouTube removed Tenet Media and related channels from its services on Thursday after the Justice Department accused the company of partaking in a secret Russian influence operation.

The revelation comes days after the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of nearly three dozen internet domains it alleged were used in “Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as ‘Doppelganger,’ in violation of U.S. money laundering and criminal trademark laws.” According to Fox News, the unsealed indictment alleged a pair of Russian state media staffers had been covertly funding a Tennessee-based, American content creation company identified in reports as Tenet Media” and other shell companies with the goal of spreading what the DOJ classified as “Russian government propaganda.”

The indictment contended that Tenet Media “published nearly 2,000 videos to social media platforms such as X and YouTube, and failed to inform viewers it was financed by the Kremlin,” the report reads.

Right-wing influencers such as Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson are among those affiliated with the company. Many of these figures have since denied knowledge of the company’s alleged ties to Russia and proclaimed to be “victims” of Moscow’s purported influence operation.

While litigation on the matter remains ongoing, YouTube seemingly viewed the existence of the DOJ’s allegations and presser as providing sufficient justification for unilaterally taking down Tenet Media’s channel. The Google-owned company also removed the channel of Tenet Media founder Lauren Chen and other affiliated accounts, according to