WATERTOWN, Wis. — As county clerks printed their ballots to deliver to the more than 1,800 municipal clerks that administer Wisconsin elections, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was trying to get his name off them — and has failed. 

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Ehlke ruled Monday that the Democrat-turned-independent’s name will remain on Badger State ballots.

“The statute is plain on its face,” he said. “Mr. Kennedy has no one to blame but himself if he didn’t want to be on the ballot.”

Kennedy’s attorneys had argued for stickers to cover his name on already-printed ballots, but the judge rejected that idea.

Ehlke moved the scheduled decision from Tuesday given the tight deadline for ballots to be delivered to municipal clerks. Kennedy will reportedly appeal the ruling.

Kennedy filed on the Wisconsin deadline for independent candidates Aug. 6 but ended his presidential bid Aug. 25 by endorsing former President Donald Trump. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission four days later denied his request to be taken off the ballot, citing state law that says the name of a person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot “shall appear upon the ballot except in case of death of the person.”

Kennedy filed a lawsuit challenging the commission’s decision, arguing state law doesn’t treat third-party and major-party candidates equally. The court denied his preliminary-injunction request before Monday’s ruling. 

County clerks must deliver the ballots to municipal clerks by Wednesday, since Thursday, Sept. 19 is the deadline to mail absentee ballots to voters with requests on record for the general election. 

Milwaukee County Elections Director Michelle Hawley told The Post the county has more than 600,000 ballots to print, and they’ve already been sent to the printer. It would cost about $80,000 to reprint them.

She said the printer doesn’t have enough pieces of the specialized ballot paper required to reprint the ballots.

“It would take a couple of days to source the paper, and we would never meet our statutory deadlines,” Hawley warned.

It would be a “big challenge” to reprint if the court rules in favor of Kennedy, she admitted ahead of the decision.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice asked Hawley to submit documentation to the court in Kennedy’s case regarding what steps it would need to take to remove Kennedy’s name from the more than 524 versions of ballots the county has.

The list of concerns includes one solution — stickers covering RFK Jr.’s name — gumming up the ballot machines, which have specialized sensors to weigh the ballots.

“In Wisconsin, most of the clerks have already gone to print,” Eau Claire County Clerk Sue McDonald told The Post. “Some of our [ballots] have already been circulated to municipal clerks.”

Some municipalities “already have ballots on hand” and are stuffing them in envelopes for their standing absentee-ballot requests.  

Kennedy filed a petition for leave to appeal in a Waukesha County appeals court last week, asking the court to “act and act quickly,” saying “he needs the Court to address his constitutional arguments and take him off the ballot.”

That petition, to the Second District Court of Appeals, was put on hold until the circuit court ruling — so it may be decided at any time.

Some municipal elections clerks had already sent the digital ballot to overseas and military voters.

Kennedy still garners 6% of the Wisconsin vote in a matchup of all the presidential candidates in Marquette Law School polling released last week. The survey also found Kennedy was the best-known of the third-party candidates on the ballot.