Maine secretary of state rules Trump ineligible for state's 2024 primary ballot - ABC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The decision can be appealed in state court.
ByIsabella Murray, Lalee Ibssa , and Jolie LashDecember 28, 2023, 9:36 PM
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state's 2024 Republican primary ballot.
Bellows, a Democrat, issued her decision on three challenges brought by Maine voters, including three politicians, over the nomination petition of Trump for the GOP primary.
Bellows upheld the two challenges that sought to bar Trump from the ballot based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. She rejected one that hinged on the 22nd Amendment
"I conclude that Mr. Trump's primary petition is invalid," Bellows wrote in her decision. "Specifically, I find that the declaration on his candidate consent form is false because he is not qualified to hold the office of the President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment."
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Bellows went on to say in her decision that "the record establishes 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 to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power. I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it."
Bellows concluded that Trump's "occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement" did not "immunize his actions. A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on the Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match," her decision read.
In her conclusion, Bellow said she was "mindful" no secretary of state had "deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment."
She continued: "I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection. The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine's election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek."
Bellows suspended "the effect" of her decision until Maine's Superior Court rules on any appeal, given the "compressed timeframe, the novel constitutional questions involved, the importance of this case, and impending ballot preparation deadlines," involved in the case, she wrote.
In a statement immediately following the decision, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they would "quickly file a legal objection in state court."
He went on to call Bellows a "hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election."
The ruling on Thursday evening makes Maine the second state in the nation to disqualify Trump from seeking the GOP presidential nomination under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Colorado is the only other state to rule him off its primary ballot, though the state Supreme Court's decision has been stayed until Jan. 4, 2024, because the Colorado Republican Party appealed the court's Dec. 19 order to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night.
Bellows acknowledged an impending Supreme Court ruling and how it could impact her decision in her order Thursday:
"While I am cognizant of the fact that my decision could soon be rendered a nullity by a decision of the United States Supreme Court in Anderson, that possibility does not relieve me of my responsibility to act," Bellows wrote.
Trump is facing more than a dozen tests over his ballot eligibility under the 14th Amendment in various state and federal courts, with challenges or appeals pending in about 15 states. Maine is the first state to allow its secretary of state to rule on a challenge.
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A direct attack on our Democracy. One person disenfranchising voters in Maine.
This to shall not stand ……
Write-in candidate should work.
A liberal pundit, Damon linker, summed it up nicely.
Yep, we are dangerously close to a constitutional crisis. No doubt about it.
In the end I think Trump will be on all the ballots, but I nonetheless think what is happening is good for the country. Donald Trump wished for an insurrection that would help keep him in power, and he got it. These are basic facts of what happened and recent books by Liz Cheney and Jonathan Karl (in particular) demonstrate this quite clearly. Although the J6 committee drew something like 15 million viewers, that is still just a small proportion, about 10 percent, of American voters, and I think it is fair to say that many people dont know or understand specifics of Trump's "big lie. People are not going to run out and buy these books, and so Trump goes merrily along spinning lies about the 2020 election, which he does at virtually every speech. The other day he said there are mountains of evidence that the election was stolen from him, and yet , oddly, he has never produced a single bit of such actual evidence. Its disgraceful that no one who has interviewed him in the past 3 years has simply demanded that he produce evidence or shut the fuck up.
What these state by state "removals" of his name from the ballot will do is call attention to something that few Americans seem to want to confront - their president tried to overthrow the US government on Jan 6 2021. At his ellipse speech that day Trump reminded Pence that there was still time for him to do the right thing, and Trump referred to John Eastman in that context. Trump was well aware of the Eastman plan, which called for Pence to try and "declare" Trump had won the election due to the votes from the swing states being invalid since they were being "disputed". Trump was warned that this scheme was unconstitutional but he was trying to put it in play even as Congress was meeting to vote on the electoral count.
The states that are trying to block Trump from the ballot will fail in the end, but will succeed in calling attention to all this.
I'm sure all the other totalitarian left wing fascists agree with you.
Why would anyone run out to buy those books and benefit those two never Trump turds? Well, we know the triggered will but there are so few of those their greedy hopes of a best seller is just pissing in the wind.
Once again you miss the main point. One person, a “state” Secretary of State, is attempting to disenfranchise a major portion of voters. If this were happening to a Democrat you would be screaming bloody murder. No doubt about it.
Bias has once again tainted your reasoning.
Trump ellipse speech
============================================================================
No states wanted to recertify. All 50 states had verified and certified their election results. There were no "disputed" electors, except in the imagination of Trump and Giuliani and Sydney Powell and Mike Lindell etc.
On Jan 6th at his speech Trump knew that Pence had, that morning, told him over the phone that he could not go along with the Eastman plan, but Trump would not give up. He brought it up again at his speech and then told his followers to "fight like hell" to save the country (by which he meant his presidency). He added the word "peacefully", but at that time Trump was fully aware that there were elements in his supporters at the capitol that had no intention of being peaceful. Him saying peaceful was totally a "cover your ass" move.
I wish for even one time you would present something remotely like evidence or even an argument that tries to factually dispute what I am saying, but that is a lost cause.
The Secretary of State of Maine wrote a 34 page decision on why she has the authority to keep Trump off their ballot.
As far as disenfranchising voters, Trump wanted to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters in the seven swing states by having Pence declare, unilaterally, that those votes were in "dispute" and would not be counted toward the electoral vote total.
I dont recall you ever saying a peep about that.
Why are they so worried about Trump when Traitor Joe says he can easily beat him?
Maybe downline Dems know the truth--Americans are tired of Traitor Joe's bullshit.
Well, my Christmas wish is that for once you could view the world through non Trump tinted glass but I’m not holding my breath.
And it will get overturned. Wait for it ….
An oversimplification of a very complex issue but you would be wrong. I supported Pences actions then with the very limited information we had at the time.
That said, I don’t expect the triggered gaslighting to stop so carry on ….
Unlike you, I am actually familiar with the eastman memo, and posted a seed on it a few days ago which not a single Newstalkers conservative came on.
Trump was well aware of what was in that memo and it served as the basis for all his attempts to get Pence to stop the electoral count. All this came out, in detail at the J6 committee. I doubt, based on what you say about these things, that you watched it at all.
It is what it is.
Dissenting people don’t come to your seeds because of the draconian moderation that occurs there. Draconian might not be the right word. Childish or immature might be better.
Yes, it “is” what it is. And a lot of triggered people are about to find out what the definition of “is” really is, in this case. Real soon.
I just hope you all survive the shock.
Funny how every time someone disagrees with you it is because they are ignorant of the subject.
I would happy to discuss Trumps attempt to steal the election with you. Go for it.
Take your pick
Donald Trump and his allies were accused of using various tactics to subvert the 2020 presidential election. According to a memo by John Eastman, a former Trump election lawyer, Trump and his team proposed a scheme to overturn the election by having former Vice President Mike Pence reject certified electors from seven states 1 . This memo was based on a fringe and unconstitutional theory that Pence had unilateral authority to decide the election outcome 1 . Trump also pressured top justice department officials to falsely claim that the 2020 election was corrupt so he and his allies in Congress could subvert the results and return him to office 2 . Additionally, a previously unseen internal memo from the 2020 Trump campaign described in detail the plot by Donald Trump and his lawyers to subvert election results in six states, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times 3 . The memo describes a three-pronged plan to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory on 6 January 2021, that involved coordinating with Republican electors and campaign attorneys in six states, as well as Mike Pence 3 . Federal prosecutors also pointed to seven states where they allege Trump plotted to subvert the results with false slates of electors poised to cast electoral votes 4 . The allegation that Trump used “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” to subvert the 2020 election with “pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud” comes after a sprawling investigation that included testimony from dozens of White House aides and advisors ranging in seniority up to former Vice President Mike Pence 5 .
I am sure you have nothing new to say......only regurgitation of the same ole song. A couple hundred people almost took over the country based on Trumps master plan and the fact he really really thought democracy is so fragile a couple hundred people could topple it.
See, you have nothing to say.
The issue of his attempts to steal the election involves a lot more than the people who entered the Capitol building. If you had watched the J6 hearings or read about them you would know that.
Exactly how ignorant must one be to belive that a relative handful of people, mostly unarmed, could take down the government of the US?
Chicken Little had NOTHING on these fools!
See, once again you have nothing new to say.
Once again you jump to conclusions about what someone did or did not do because they don't fall lockstep into your delusion of a "bipartisan" made for tv commission whose sole reason for existence was to get Trump
If you listen to them Democracy was a second away from being a thing of the past and if you vote for any republican you are endangering democracy. Yet telling people who they can and can not vote for is fine. Very Putinesque
If only you would jump on the "I Hate Trump" train, all would be well.
I am already on the Trump is an asshole train, I guess that is not enough.
Don't think that will qualify.
You must incessantly bitch about all things Trump, real AND imagined, or you just aren't exhibiting enough poutrage for inclusion in the club.
Absolutely. Gather the feathers and heat the tar!!
It's kind of funny how focused they are on Trump while Traitor Joe is fucking the country up.
judges and election officials all over the country begin disqualifying candidates for any number of reasons.
Alarmist bullshit. How hard did anyone have to look for a reason to disqualify Donald fucking Trump from running for office? The Constitution and his open hostility towards free and fair elections. He IS the reason that amendment exists.
Trumpsters and Trumpsters-lite are in complete denial about their god.
Wow. People knew all that about Trump before his birth. Cool!
The slope you are attempting to walk is a very slippery one.
Careful now …. Watch your step!
Feel free to explain your comment if possible.
his open hostility towards free and fair elections
the irony here…..
What part don’t you understand? The analogy or that slopes can be slippery
Hillary’s hotel room felt the hostility in November of 2016 ….
Sean, did Trump know and acknowledge to certain others who have testified that he knew he lost the election? Why do you pretend this is not a fact?
Again, feel free to flesh that out. A bumper sticker is just a bumper sticker.
Again, see 2.3.6 above and get back to me.
Can’t make it more plain ….
Testimony? They dont need no stinking testimony. They have right wing media to tell them what to think.
So you can’t then. Got it.
Wrong again.
See 2.3.10 and get back to me with any questions.
More thinly veiled insults will be ignored.
You have lots of creative ways of saying you can’t answer me. It is getting stale though.
So he was removed from the ballot with out due process. Can we say Election Interference boys and girls?
Can you say it was done according to the law in Maine?
Too bad it wasn’t.
It was ruled by a “state” Secretary of State, interpreting the US constitution. She will get overturned soon, just like Colorado and all others who attempt something like this.
My home state, Michigan, has ruled properly on this. Which simply amazes me.
Did you miss the "without due process" part?
She’ll be lucky to be in office still this time next year.
She is just another TDS suffering Democrat that wipes their ass with the Constitution.
Lets hope every red state institutes a jungle primary and then only allow landowners to vote in the primaries, let's see how the takers like voting for a choice of 2 republicans for the most part.
It appears that some Democrats are way more worried about Traitor Joe's re-election chances than he is.
Why else work so hard to keep Trump off a ballot?
This all began on November 9th 2016. When the chosen one swore vengeance on he who dared defeat her.
Not all Maine Democrats agree with this decision however.
Spot on.
Maines Secretary of States “personal decision” is about to be smacked down. Hard.
And deservedly so …..