Maine’s top electoral official has disqualified Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot, making it the second state to ban the former president for allegedly engaging in insurrection by attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Maine secretary of state Shenna Bellows on Thursday said Mr Trump must be excluded from the 2024 Republican primary vote in her state, arguing that he was not qualified to be president under the 14th amendment of the US constitution, which prohibits individuals who have engaged in insurrection from holding office.
The decision marks the second time in less than a fortnight that a US state has ruled to throw Mr Trump off a presidential primary ballot, adding another legal challenge for the leading Republican candidate.
The former president also faces a string of legal cases, including two indictments at the federal and state level accusing him of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty.
The US supreme court last week separately declined a request by the justice department to fast-track a decision on whether Mr Trump was immune from prosecution for crimes allegedly committed while he was in office.
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In the months leading up to January 6th, 2021, when Trump backers stormed the US Capitol, the then president “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”, said Ms Bellows.
She added 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”.
Mr Trump’s campaign said Ms Bellows, a Democrat, “decided to interfere in the presidential election” and that it would “quickly file a legal objection” against this “atrocious decision” in Maine’s state court. Lawyers representing Mr Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms Bellows’s order came after the Colorado supreme court last week said Mr Trump was not fit to be president under the 14th amendment, citing evidence linked to the January 6th attack.
The Colorado court has put its decision on hold to give the US supreme court a chance to decide whether to intervene or let the ruling take effect. The state’s Republican Party on Wednesday filed an appeal against the decision with the US supreme court after Mr Trump last week vowed to make a similar move. Mr Trump’s campaign has called the order “completely flawed”.
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Ms Bellows on Thursday similarly put her decision on hold until the Maine superior court rules on a potential appeal or the time to challenge her decision expires. Her order stemmed from three challenges brought by Maine voters.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Ms Bellows said. “Democracy is sacred... I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access” based on the 14th amendment. “I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection,” she added.
Later on Thursday, California’s secretary of state released a list of candidates that included Mr Trump to appear on the primary ballot despite a push by some state officials to bar him.
Legal efforts to disqualify Mr Trump in other states, including Minnesota, Arizona and Michigan, have fallen short. Another case is pending in Oregon. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023