The decision to strike Donald Trump from the state’s ballot for the 2024 election was motivated, according to Maine’s top election official, by her “sacred obligation” to uphold the law.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed Mr. Trump based on the US Constitution’s insurrection clause, pointing to his involvement in the US Capitol riot of 2021.
The Democrat expressed hope to the BBC that the US Supreme Court will resolve the matter.
The Trump team has promised to challenge the contentious ruling.
The former president can no longer cast an electoral ballot in Maine or Colorado. However, until legal challenges are heard by the courts, both rulings are on hold.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign named Steven Cheung has said the judgments made in Maine and Colorado amounts to electoral tampering. The decisions, according to him, represent “a hostile assault on American democracy” on Thursday.
Legal experts and Mr. Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination criticized the decision as well, but Ms. Bellows insisted that she acted in accordance with the law and the evidence that was provided.
In her order, which was released on Thursday, Ms. Bellows claims that the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment requires Mr. Trump to be taken off the state’s Republican primary ballot. Her “political affiliation or prior experience” was unimportant in the decision, she told the BBC.
The US Civil War’s end is historically associated with this part of the constitutional amendment, which bars anybody who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office. In her order, Ms. Bellows justifies Mr. Trump’s dismissal by pointing to his attempts to promote a “false narrative of election fraud” for several months before to the incident on January 6.
Any registered voter in Maine has the right to contest a candidate’s eligibility to be on the ballot. In the instance of Mr. Trump, the challenge was made by two Republican and one Democratic former state senator.
According to Maine election law, Ms. Bellows told the BBC, “I have to hold an administrative hearing to review the facts and the evidence.” She said that both sides had legal representation. “After that, I had to go over the facts, the hearing transcript, the legislation, and the Constitution. That is my holy duty.”
“I have an obligation to protect the Constitution,” Ms. Bellows stated.
In the order, Democratic Secretary of State Ms. Bellows acknowledged the uniqueness of her judgment by noting that “no Secretary of State has ever denied a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.”
“Also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever engaged in insurrection,” she noted in the verdict.
The Maine verdict won’t become operative until the conclusion of the possibly drawn-out judicial appeals process. State courts will now examine the ruling, and it may finally end up before the Supreme Court.
A similar decision in that state was appealed by the Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday, igniting a legal dispute that may ultimately reach the Supreme Court. In the interim, Mr. Trump will continue to appear on the state ballot.
A ruling in the Colorado case by the Supreme Court might also be “determinative” in Maine, according to Ms. Bellows.
However, the Trump campaign and other Republicans, including some of the former president’s adversaries inside the party, have sharply criticized her choice.
“It opens up Pandora’s box,” Republican candidate for governor of Florida Ron DeSantis stated on Fox News following the announcement of the Maine verdict. “Can you have a Republican secretary of state disqualify Biden from the ballot?”
Despite the lack of a criminal conviction, veteran federal prosecutor Joe Moreno told the BBC that it was “breathtakingly arrogant” for Mrs. Bellows to “unilaterally” conclude Mr. Trump committed rebellion.
“There’s no way this holds up under any judicial scrutiny,” he stated.
Ms. Bellows was questioned by BBC News about her choice and how it would affect state voters who planned to support Mr. Trump.
Nonetheless, the Secretary of State for Maine insisted that, given the information at hand, she was “duty bound” to strike the former president from the list.
