By Raul Castillo
Dec 28, 2023, 7:49 PM EST
In another major judicial blow to former President Donald Trump, Maine’s top elections official ruled that he is constitutionally ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot next year. The ban comes days after the Colorado Supreme Court expelled him from that state’s elections.
In a document shared by several American media outlets, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced the decision, alleging that Trump cannot participate in the elections for having participated in an “insurrection.”
“The weight of the evidence makes it clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his months-long effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then decided to strike a match,” Bellows wrote.
The Maine Secretary of State added that the former president “used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his followers and direct them to the Capitol to prevent the certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”
In this way, Bellows became the first state official to dismiss a presidential candidate.
“I am aware that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of access to the polls based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” he wrote. “However, I am also aware that no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection before.”
However, Bellows’ office said his decision would not be enforced until the courts intervene, “given the shortened deadline, the new constitutional issues involved, the importance of this case and the looming ballot preparation deadlines.”
As in the Colorado case, Trump’s lawyers are expected to appeal the ruling.
After Bellows’ decision was revealed, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung attacked her in a public statement.
“The Secretary of State of Maine is a former ACLU attorney, a virulent leftist, and a hyper-partisan Democrat who supports Biden and who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of corrupt Joe Biden,” Cheung asserted. “We are witnessing, in real time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter.”
With information from EFE and NBC News.
Keep reading:
- Michigan Supreme Court rejects appeal seeking to exclude Donald Trump from state ballot
- FBI investigates threats against Colorado judges after Donald Trump’s removal from state ballots
- Trump asks appeals court to dismiss election subversion case