Two States Block Donald Trump From Presidential Ballot In 2024
Maine’s top election official has ruled that Donald Trump cannot run for president next year in the state, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.
Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows said Mr Trump was not eligible because of his actions leading up to the US Capitol riot in 2021.
Maine now joins Colorado as the two states to ban Trump from the ballot.
The decisions increase pressure on the US Supreme Court to weigh in.
Colorado votes reliably Democratic, however Maine is more politically competitive and would be more significant for Mr Trump – the Republican frontrunner – to lose.
The Trump campaign has already said it will lodge an appeal in the state’s courts against the Maine ruling, which won’t take effect while the legal process plays out.
Hours after Maine’s decision, California – America’s most populous state- announced that Mr Trump would remain on the Republican primary ballot there.
Courts in other states, including Michigan and Minnesota, have also recently dismissed efforts to block Mr Trump from running as a candidate.
It is likely that the Supreme Court will make the ultimate decision as to whether Mr Trump can run for president or whether he is ineligible because of a Civil War-era amendment to the US Constitution.
Mrs Bellows’ 34-page ruling says Mr Trump must be removed from Maine’s Republican primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment- which bans anyone whom has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office.
In her order, Mrs Bellows, a Democrat, says that Mr Trump “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol”.
She added that his “occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions”.
Speaking to BBC News after her ruling, Mrs Bellows said it was her duty to uphold election laws in her state, and that she hoped the “Supreme Court will settle this matter nationwide”.
“I’m mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on section three of the 14th Amendment. But I’m also mindful that no presidential candidate has, ever before, engaged in insurrection.”
She denied her decision was politically motivated, saying it was “thorough and based on the rule of law”.
Mr Trump faces upcoming trials in federal court and in the state of Georgia related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He has not been charged with inciting insurrection in either case.
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