Maine State Rep. John Andrews (R) has filed a request for a Joint Order to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows after she banned Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot.
“I wasn’t planning to impeach the Secretary of State tonight, but here we are,” Andrews wrote on Facebook.
“I wish to file a Joint Order, or whichever is the proper parliamentary mechanism under Mason’s Rules, to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. I wish to impeach Secretary Bellows on the grounds that she is barring an American citizen and 45th President of the United States, who is convicted of no crime or impeachment, their right to appear on a Maine Republican Primary ballot,” he said. “Donald J. Trump has met all qualifications for the March 2024 Republican Presidential Primary. He should be allowed on the ballot. This is raw partisanship and has no place in the offices of our state’s Constitutional Officers.”
On Thursday evening, Bellows 34-page ruling said that “Mr. Trump’s primary petition is invalid.”
“Specifically, I find that the declaration on his candidate consent for is false because he is not qualified to hold the office of the President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the document read.
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred, and the highest court of this State has repeatedly recognized that ‘no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live,'” she wrote.
Bellows continued, “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, issued a response to the ruling, stating, “The Maine Secretary of State is a former ACLU attorney, a virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden.
“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter. Democrats in blue states are recklessly and unconstitutionally suspending the civil rights of the American voters by attempting to summarily remove President Trump’s name from the ballot.”
“Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy,” he said. “Biden and the Democrats simply do not trust the American voter in a free and fair election and are now relying on the force of government institutions to protect their grip on power.”
Cheung noted that “[s]tate courts in Michigan and Minnesota have rejected these bad-faith, bogus 14th Amendment ballot challenges, as have federal courts in New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, West Virginia, along with ten other federal jurisdictions. We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight.”
“President Trump’s dominating campaign has a commanding lead in the polls that has dramatically expanded as Crooked Joe Biden’s presidency continues to fail. We will quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect, and President Trump will never stop fighting to Make America Great Again.”
Colorado, the first state to ban Trump from the ballot, announced that the 45th President will be included in the Colorado Presidential Primary Ballot, according to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
Griswold said in a press release that Donald Trump will be “included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling.”
Griswold stated, “Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado Ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. This decision is now being appealed. I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election.”
