Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
The decision by Shenna Bellows follows a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
That decision has been stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Trump is indeed barred by the Civil War-era provision, which prohibits those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding office.
The Trump campaign said it would appeal Bellows’ decision in Maine’s state court system, and it is likely that the nation’s highest court will have the final say on whether Trump appears on the ballot there and in the other states.
Bellows found that Trump was no longer eligible for office because his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion violated Section 3.
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She made the ruling after some Maine residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s appearance on the ballot.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote in her 34-page decision.
“I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
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The Trump campaign immediately slammed the ruling.
“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Cheung also called Bellows a “virulent leftist” and a “hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat,” according to the New York Post.
While Maine has just four electoral votes, it’s one of two states to split them.
Trump won one of Maine’s electors in 2020, so kicking him off the ballot there should he emerge as the GOP’s general election candidate could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.
That’s in contrast to Colorado, which Trump lost by 13 percentage points in 2020 and where he wasn’t expected to compete in November if he wins the Republican presidential nomination.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
