After Colorado, US state of Maine disqualifies Donald Trump from 2024 ballot
Donald Trump was on Thursday disqualified from the state ballot in next year’s US presidential primary election.
The decision came by Maine’s top election official, making it the second state to bar Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The former US President was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024, but incited an insurrection when he spread false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat said.
Trump then urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote, she said.
Bellows suspended her decision until the state supreme court ruled on the matter.
On December 19, Colorado’s top court disqualified Trump from the state primary ballot, making him the first candidate in US history to be deemed ineligible for the presidency for engaging in insurrection. However, Trump vowed to appeal the Colorado ruling to the Supreme Court and criticised ballot challenges as “undemocratic”.
Thursday’s decision came after a group of former Maine lawmakers said that Trump should be disqualified based on a provision of the US Constitution that bars people from holding office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after previously swearing an oath to the United States.
The ruling, which can be appealed to a state court, applies only to the March primary election, but it could affect Trump’s status for the November general election.
It will likely add to pressure on the US Supreme Court to resolve questions about Trump’s eligibility nationwide under the constitutional provision known as Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Trump has been indicted in both a federal case and in Georgia for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, but he has not been charged with insurrection related to the January 6 attack.
He leads opinion polls by a large margin in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024.