Another State Expected To Rule On Removing Trump from Ballot This Friday

This just in: The State of Maine is expected to rule on whether or not to keep Trump’s name on the primary election ballot this Friday.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, will make the decision.

Take a look:

NEW: Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is expected to rule on whether or not Donald Trump is allowed to be on Maine's primary ballot.

Colorado and now Maine… This is what election interference looks like, folks.

The decision by Bellows, which is expected to be made on… pic.twitter.com/S3XAvTsklg

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 20, 2023

Shenna Bellows Maine's Secretary of State will rule on Friday whether or not Trump is allowed to be on Maine's primary ballot.

How many more states will rule this way until the Supreme Court reverses it?

Clowns! pic.twitter.com/LaVVURkPcY

— 🇺🇸 Larry 🇺🇸 (@LarryDJonesJr) December 20, 2023

Spectrum News has more details on Maine’s upcoming ruling:

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is expected to rule Friday on whether former President Donald Trump’s name should appear on the Republican primary ballot in March.

Former Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling, a Democrat, and former state Sen. Kimberly Rosen, a Republican, are among those who are challenging whether Trump qualifies under the Constitution to run for office again.

That’s because they say Trump incited insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, during a speech to supporters before they attacked the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the Electoral College votes from being counted.

The Constitution specifically refers to insurrection in the 14^th Amendment, saying that “no person” can serve if they previously took the oath of office and “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”

However, it goes on to say that Congress “may” vote to “remove such disability.”

On Friday, both sides laid out their cases at the State House.

“There is no doubt that Donald J. Trump willfully violated his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution while he was president of the United States,” Mary Anne Royal, a Winterport resident, said during Friday’s hearing. “No person who has taken that oath of office, and then violated that oath so egregiously, can ever be trusted to hold public office again.”

The Boston Globe also reported:

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday removed former president Donald J. Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot and similar challenges have been brought in multiple states, including Maine.

Across the country, dozens of lawsuits have been filed to disqualify Trump under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the disqualification clause, which was crafted to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It prohibits anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it from holding elective office. The measure has been used only a handful of times.

A Trump spokesperson said the Colorado ruling “attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy. It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order.”

In Maine, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was initially expected to rule Friday on whether Trump’s name should appear on that state’s primary ballot in March, Spectrum News reported.

Court officials said later in the day Wednesday that Bellows, in light of the Colorado ruling, was inviting the Maine parties to file supplemental briefs by Thursday night at 8 p.m. In light of that invitation and additional “technical difficulties” her office is contending with, her ruling is now slated to come early next week, officials said.

Attorneys for the advocates seeking to bar Trump from the ballot, including former Democratic Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling and former GOP state Senator Kimberly Rosen, squared off last week against lawyers for Trump at State House hearing, the network reported.

“The challengers have the burden of providing sufficient evidence to invalidate the petition,” Bellows’s office said in a statement before last week’s hearing. “At the hearing there will be an opportunity for both the challengers and the candidate to present oral testimony of witnesses as well as additional documentary evidence, and to make oral argument pertaining to the challenge in light of that evidence.”

One of the complaints filed in the Maine matter says Trump “engaged in insurrection” against the US Constitution and “is now ineligible to hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.”

The complaint adds that because “Trump is not eligible to hold the office of President of the United States, his declaration is false, and his consent and primary petitions are void.”

Advocates allege that Trump incited the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol and allowed the violence to rage for hours. He faces a separate criminal indictment for his alleged role in the insurrection, one of four criminal cases he currently faces. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and decried the various proceedings against him as a political witch hunt.

Maine is not the only state considering kicking Trump off the ballot following Colorado’s decision to interfere in the election process.

At least 6 other states are looking into following suit.

Here’s a quick update on how it’s going in those states:

🚨STATE BY STATE UPDATE ON EFFORTS TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM THE BALLOTS:

COLORADO: The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Trump is ineligible for the state's primary ballot, pending a potential U.S. Supreme Court review.

MAINE: Decision expected Friday.

CALIFORNIA: Efforts are… https://t.co/yba6S1zV8V pic.twitter.com/b95BHKm9zg

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 20, 2023