Maine’s top election official rules Trump ineligible for 2024 primary ballot

Maine’s
top
election
official
ruled
Thursday
that Donald
Trump is
constitutionally
ineligible
to
appear
on
the
state’s
primary
ballot next
year,
fueling
a
national
effort
to
disqualify
the
former
president
over
his
attempts
to
overturn
the
2020
election.

The
decision
by
Maine
Secretary
of
State
Shenna
Bellows,
a
Democrat,
follows
a bombshell
Colorado
Supreme
Court
ruling last
week
that
concluded
the
14th
Amendment
to
the
Constitution
prohibits
Trump
from
serving
in
office
again
due
to
his
role
in
the
Jan.
6
attack
on
the
Capitol.

However,
Bellows’
office
said
her
decision
would
not
be
enforced
until
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court
weighs
in,
“given
the
compressed
timeframe,
the
novel
constitutional
questions
involved,
the
importance
of
this
case,
and
impending
ballot
preparation
deadlines.”

Trump
is
expected
to
appeal
the
decisions
and
others
like
it
to
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court,
which
will likely
have
to
settle
the
issue.
In
the
meantime,
state
election
officials
and
lower
courts
have
been
forced
to
grapple
with
the
unprecedented
constitutional
question
on
their
own.

So
far
most
courts
have
sided
with
Trump,
with
recent
decisions
in Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota ruling
against
citizen-led
petitions
to
disqualify
him
and
affirming
Trump’s
right
to
appear
on
the
ballot
in
those
states.

Trump
has
railed
against
the
effort
to
remove
him
from
the
ballot
as
politically
motivated
attempts
to
undemocratically
disenfranchise
him
and
his
supporters. 

Trump
has
demanded
that
Bellows
recuse
herself
from
the
case,
arguing
she
is
too
partisan
—
she
is
a
former
Democratic
state
senator
—
and
too
prejudiced
because
she
had
publicly
stated
she
viewed
the
Jan.
6
attack
as
an
“insurrection.” 

“The
secretary’s
expression
of
support
for
the
view
that
January
6,
2021,
constituted
an
insurrection,
and
that
President
Trump
was
an
‘insurrectionist,’
is
probative
evidence
of
prejudgment
and
bias,”
Trump’s
legal
team
wrote
in
a
filing
Wednesday,
pointing
to
statements
she
had
made
in
previous
years. 

At
issue
is
Section
3
of
the
14th
Amendment,
which
was
written
after
the
Civil
War
to
prevent
former
Confederate
officers
from
holding
office
in
the
newly
reunited
states.
The
clause
bars
from
public
office
any
former
official
who
swore
an
oath
to
the
Constitution
and
then
“engaged
in
insurrection
or
rebellion.”

The
Colorado
Court
concluded
that
Trump
should
be
considered
an
insurrectionist
for
instigating
violence
in
the
lead-up
to
Jan.
6,
though
it
did
not
enforce
the
decision
immediately,
expecting
an
appeal
to
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court.

While
the
current
cases
pertain
to
whether
Trump
can
appear
on
Republican
primary
ballots,
they
would
lay
the
groundwork
for
potentially
removing
him
from
the
ballot
in
next
November’s
general
election,
if
upheld.

The
effort
to
disqualify
Trump
under
the
14th
Amendment
had
been
paid
relatively
little
attention
until
the
Colorado
decision,
but
the
stakes
are
now
higher
as
other
states
consider
similar
arguments
with
little
time
to
spare.

Both
Maine
and
Colorado
hold
their
primary
on
Super
Tuesday,
March
5,
but
federal
law
requires
state
officials
to
send
ballots
to
overseas
military
service
members
and
others
45
days
before
an
election,
meaning
the
ballots
need
to
be
prepared
in
January. 

Politically,
strategists
in
both
parties
expect
the
legal
case
against
Trump
to
ultimately
collapse
and
say
efforts
to
disqualify
him
will
likely
only serve
to
energize
his
supporters and
fuel
his
claims
that
he’s
being
targeted
by
a
vast
conspiracy
of
powerful
elite.