LANSING, Mich. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday a final effort from former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to get his name removed from the ballot in Michigan, as nearly 2 million people have already voted in the state.

For weeks, Kennedy, who dropped his campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump on Aug. 23, has been fighting in lawsuits to get his name taken off the ballot in multiple battleground states whose results in this year's presidential election are expected to be tight. The Michigan Supreme Court rejected Kennedy's bid on Sept. 9. Then, on Sept. 27, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied him.

But on Oct. 25, the day before early, in-person voting opened statewide in Michigan, Kennedy filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court, the top court nationally, for an emergency injunction that would have temporarily ordered Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson "to remove Mr. Kennedy’s name from the ballot for the upcoming election."

The Michigan Secretary of State's office said in a Monday filing with the U.S. Supreme Court that it was "simply no longer possible" to remove Kennedy's name from ballots.

And, on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Kennedy's application for an injunction, according to court records. There was no explanation for the determination. Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of Trump, dissented.

Regardless, it was unclear how such an injunction would have worked, given that about 2 million Michigan voters have already returned an absentee ballot or voted early at in-person voting centers across the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a similar denial Tuesday against Kennedy in his push to get off the ballot in Wisconsin.

"It is no longer possible for Michigan’s 83 counties to reprint and distribute new ballots — a process that can take up to two weeks to complete," wrote the lawyers who are representing the Michigan Secretary of State's office in their Supreme Court filing. "Further, Michigan’s tabulating equipment has already been programmed to count existing ballots; that equipment cannot now be reprogrammed to tabulate different ballots."

The election is already underway, added the state's attorneys. Among the lawyers whose names appeared on the filing was Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel.

"Kennedy does not even attempt to suggest how his requested injunction could be implemented in time for the election," they wrote.

The Natural Law Party nominated Kennedy for president in Michigan in April, giving him a spot on the state's ballots.

After Kennedy suspended his campaign, Benson's office said there was no legal standard in Michigan for removing a minor party candidate once they were nominated. The candidate "bears the flag of their party, and their interests as a candidate are no longer exclusively their own," Benson's lawyers have previously written in their court filings.

However, Kennedy's legal team argued in its application with the U.S. Supreme Court that Benson had compelled speech from Kennedy, by including his name on the ballot, in violation of his constitutional rights.

"Such behavior is unlawful and should not be countenanced," Kennedy's lawyers wrote.

By listing Kennedy on the ballot, the state was "misrepresenting to voters that Mr. Kennedy is qualified and willing to serve the public if elected," they added.

Among the lawyers working on behalf of Kennedy is Charlie Spies, a prominent GOP lawyer who has previously served as election law counsel to the Republican National Committee.

On Monday, a new statewide poll of 600 likely Michigan voters, commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV (Channel 4), found Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was beating Trump by 3 percentage points, 46.7%-43.7%. But 7.3% of the participants said they planned to vote for a third-party candidate, including 3.9% who said they would still cast their ballot for Kennedy.

The 3.9% in favor of Kennedy exceeded the difference between Harris and Trump, according to the survey, conducted Oct. 22-24 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and the nephew of slain President John F. Kennedy, has made campaign stops on behalf of Trump in Michigan this fall, urging his supporters to back the GOP nominee.

“My name is going to be on the ballot," Kennedy said during an event in Bath Township on Sept. 26. "But I am asking people not to check my name, but to check Donald Trump’s name because that’s the only way I am going to get to Washington."

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