California's secretary of state has kept former President Donald Trump on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot despite the contrary decisions in Colorado and Maine that have sought to remove him.
On Dec. 28, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, certified the list of candidates ahead of the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election ballot.
Ms. Weber’s decision comes after being confronted with calls from the state's lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, to remove President Trump from the ballot.
In a letter sent to California's top election official on Dec. 20, one day after the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to disqualify President Trump from the state's ballot, Ms. Kounalakis urged Ms. Weber to explore any and all legal options to ensure voters in California would not be able to cast a ballot for him.
California's lieutenant governor, citing the Colorado Supreme Court's Dec. 19 decision, accused President Trump of insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol. She concluded that this disqualifies him from holding office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The Colorado Republican Party has appealed the 4–3 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, which is composed entirely of Democrat appointees, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nation’s highest court is expected to be the final arbiter on whether President Trump is eligible to hold office.
The decision by Ms. Weber regarding California's ballot came just hours after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, whose office oversees elections in the state, ruled that President Trump cannot appear on the primary ballot in that state, citing the same 14th Amendment clause at the center of President Trump's eligibility question now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Bellows paused her decision pending appeals to the state courts.
Maine Decision
In her 34-page ruling, Maine's secretary of state, Ms. Bellows, argued that President Trump "over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power."
Ms. Bellows concluded that President Trump's primary petition is invalid and he is not qualified to hold the office of president.
President Trump's campaign has vowed to appeal Ms. Bellows’ decision to Maine’s state courts.
"We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter," spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. "Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy."
"We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight," he continued. "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."
Legal challenges filed in about half the states trying to disqualify President Trump from the ballots in 2024 have largely been dismissed by federal and state judges on procedural and jurisdictional grounds.
Thursday's decision by California's top election official means President Trump will now face off against rivals including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina governor and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
According to polling tracked by RealClearPolling.com, President Trump maintains a significant lead among his rivals.
'Inevitable Political Punditry'
Prior to California certifying President Trump's inclusion on the state ballot, the state's lieutenant governor, Ms. Kounalakis, had told the secretary of state, “This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy."
“California must stand on the right side of history. California is obligated to determine if Trump is ineligible for the California ballot,” she continued, adding that the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision should serve as a basis for a “similar decision” in the Golden State.
In her letter, Ms. Kounalakis stated that there would be “inevitable political punditry” regarding a decision to remove President Trump—who has maintained a significant lead in 2024 GOP presidential polls—from the ballot.
However, she stressed that the issue was “not a matter of political gamesmanship.”
“This is a dire matter that puts at stake the sanctity of our constitution and our democracy,” she concluded.
Ms. Weber responded to Ms. Kounalakis’s letter in a message of her own on Dec. 22, in which she stressed that the issue of keeping or removing President Trump from the ballot is of particular concern to the public, meaning she is obligated to address it "within legal parameters" and in the "best interests of all California voters."
"It is incumbent upon my office to ensure that any action undertaken regarding any candidate’s inclusion or omission from our ballots be grounded firmly in the laws and processes in place in California and our Constitution," she wrote.
