Maine’s Democratic secretary of state excluded former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take unilateral action under ‘a decision likely to have consequences on the electoral college.
Key points:
- Maine’s secretary of state says Donald Trump cannot be on the ballot because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
- Early next year, the Supreme Court will decide whether Mr. Trump can still run for president.
- This is the second state to exclude him from the primary vote
Although Maine has only four electoral votes, it is one of two states to split them. Mr. Trump won one of Maine’s major electors in 2020, so removing him from the ballot if he becomes the Republican nominee in the general election could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.
The decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows follows a December ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that removed Mr. Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Colorado is a Democratic-leaning state that is not expected to be competitive for Republicans in November.
Ms. Bellows ruled that Mr. Trump could no longer run for his previous office because his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol violated Article 3, which prohibits those from holding office who “ engaged in the insurrection.
Ms. Bellows made the decision after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Mr. Trump’s position on the ballot.
His decision came a day after Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked him to disqualify himself over tweets they said were biased. She called the attack on the US Capitol an “insurrection” and lamented that Mr Trump had not been convicted by the US Senate after being impeached by the House of Representatives.
Final decision in the hands of the Supreme Court
Ms. Bellows will not have the final say on Mr. Trump’s political career. His decision can be appealed to the Maine courts. The US Supreme Court is expected to make a final decision on whether Mr Trump can still run for president early next year.
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Activists have asked state election officials across the country to remove Mr. Trump from their state’s primary ballots under Article 3. Until Ms. Bellows’s decision, all rejected the request, often saying that They were waiting for the courts to issue instructions on how to interpret the clause, which has been used only a few times since the years after the Civil War.
Maine law required Ms. Bellows to hold a public hearing on the issue, which she did in December. An attorney and former executive director of the Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Ms. Bellows allowed each side to submit additional arguments following the Colorado Supreme Court’s landmark Dec. 19 ruling that the section 3 excluded Mr. Trump from the vote.
Mr. Trump’s campaign said it would appeal that court’s 4-3 decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never ruled on Section 3. Whatever the ruling, the high court, it will apply to all states, including Maine.
The Maine decision shows the potential dangers for Mr. Trump if the issue is decided state by state. He lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need it to win the presidency.
But Maine divides its electoral votes by congressional districts, and Mr. Trump twice won the state’s second congressional district.
If he’s not on the ballot, he would begin his 2024 campaign with one vote in the Electoral College.
The secretary of state’s office said it was unaware that the office had previously removed a presidential candidate from the ballot, but that other candidates for lower offices have been excluded this way .
P.A.
