Donald Trump Deemed Ineligible for Maine's 2024 Primary Ballot, Top Election Official Rules
Dec. 28 2023, Published 10:59 p.m. ET
Donald Trump has been deemed constitutionally ineligible for Maine's 2024 primary ballot per a top election official for the state, RadarOnline.com can reveal. The decision happened on Thursday, marking the second state to take action against the ex-president after four indictments and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, outlined her decision in 34 pages, in which she said that Trump's actions around the Capitol riot, compelled her to rule him ineligible to run for president again.
Bellows' ruling comes after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibit Trump from serving in office again because of his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Of course, Bellows' efforts won't be definite until the courts weigh in, "given the compressed timeframe, the novel constitutional questions involved, the importance of this case, and impending ballot preparation deadlines."
"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," she wrote on Thursday, alleging he "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."
Trump's team has already spoken out about Bellows' decision, accusing her of sabotaging him for political gain and proclaiming they will take action, like appealing, which will likely squash her efforts.
"We will quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect," his campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, stated per ABC News.
He then turned his sights on Bellows, calling her "a former ACLU attorney, a virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden."
According to Cheung, "We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter."
Meanwhile, the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, revealed on Thursday that the former president would remain on Colorado’s ballot unless the U.S. Supreme Court decided to uphold the ruling.
Just one day before Colorado and Maine's latest decisions, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected to remove Trump from its state ballot.