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Pennsylvania’s secretary of state said Friday he does not have the authority to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot and any such challenge here must be done through the courts.
“Pennsylvania’s Election Code does not give me, as secretary of the commonwealth, the authority to reject a nomination petition on the grounds that a potential candidate does not meet an office’s eligibility criteria,” Secretary Al Schmidt told TribLive.
Schmidt’s statement came following news late Thursday that Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from the primary ballot there, while in California, the secretary of state said Trump will remain on the ballot.
Whether Trump’s presence on the primary ballot in Pennsylvania — or later in the general election — will be challenged is still an open question.
Widener University law professor Michael R. Dimino Sr., an expert in election law, said that if a challenge is filed in court, it is likely that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would decide the issue — at least until the U.S. Supreme Court steps in.
In Pennsylvania, the intermediate level Commonwealth Court could listen to evidence and be the fact finder in such a case.
The question as it stands from Colorado and now Maine is whether Trump is qualified to be on the primary ballot. Both states — Colorado through its state Supreme Court and Maine through its secretary of state — found that he is not.
In both instances, they found Trump is ineligible to hold office again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution based on his efforts to attempt to remain in power following the 2020 election.
Section 3 precludes a person from holding office who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”
Colorado and Maine cited Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as disqualifying.
California’s secretary of state said the law there does not allow her to remove Trump from the ballot. Courts in Michigan and Minnesota also have said that election officials cannot remove him.
The U.S. Supreme Court will be the ultimate arbiter, Dimino said.
“It’s intolerable to have one state taking up this issue in conflict with other states,” he said.
Colorado already has stayed its decision pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court, which likely will take several weeks.
That means Trump’s name will likely remain on primary ballots across the country, Dimino said.
“There is no conceivable way the Supreme Court is going to say the Republican nominee who is leading in the polls, that we’re going to disqualify him,” he said. “I cannot imagine the court doing that kind of thing.
“The only real legal question is whether Trump can appear on the general election ballot.”
To challenge Trump’s presence on the ballot requires a person or group to have standing, Dimino said. He doubts an individual voter would be deemed to have that standing but suggests that other Republican nominees during the primary or potentially Democratic nominees in the general would.
“You need to show the law is not being followed and it’s hurting you in some concrete way,” he said.
Paula Reed Ward is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paula by email at pward@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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