Maine’s top election official asks state supreme court to review Trump ballot eligibility decision

Washington — Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows asked the state’s highest court to review her decision to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot, seeking its intervention after a Maine superior court judge paused Bellows’ ruling while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar dispute over Trump’s eligibility.

“I know both the constitutional and state authority questions are of grave concern to many,” Bellows, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday. “This appeal ensures that Maine’s highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.”

Maine and 15 other states hold their GOP presidential primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday.

Bellows determined last month that Trump is ineligible for the presidency under a Civil War-era constitutional provision and should therefore be kept off Maine’s primary ballot. Trump appealed the decision to the Maine Superior Court, and a judge on Wednesday put Bellows’ decision on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a similar challenge to the former president’s candidacy from Colorado.

In her ruling, Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy also sent the matter back to Bellows for additional proceedings as needed in light of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision. Once the nation’s highest court weighs in, Bellows has 30 days to issue a new decision “modifying, withdrawing or confirming” her December determination about Trump’s eligibility, Murphy said.

Bellows said in her statement she welcomes a ruling from the nation’s highest court “that provides guidance as to the important Fourteenth Amendment questions” raised in the Colorado case, but noted that Maine law allows her to seek review from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

The request from Maine’s top election official means that a second state high court could address whether Trump is constitutionally eligible for a second term in the White House under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment before the Supreme Court hears arguments Feb. 8.

Trump’s lawyers on Thursday urged the justices in his opening brief to “put a swift and decisive end” to efforts to exclude him from the 2024 ballot, which have been pursued in more than 30 states. Trump’s brief warned that the challenges to his candidacy threaten to disenfranchise millions of his supporters and “promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots.”