If four Colorado state Supreme Court justices were not a small enough number of unelected individuals to determine for whom an entire state should have the right to vote, try one. Yes, in Maine, one person, the secretary of state, unilaterally determined that the entire voting population of the Pine Tree State should be prevented from casting their ballots in their upcoming primary for former President Donald Trump.
Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, singularly disqualified Trump, pending appeal, from appearing on the March 5, 2024, primary ballot. “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it,” wrote Bellows in her Dec. 28 ruling.
On Tuesday, Trump appealed the Bellows decision in the Maine Superior Court.
Bellows must be clairvoyant, given her conclusion that “Trump was aware.” Does Bellows know what’s in the head or on the mind of the former president? She based her disqualification on a feeling, without any discernible evidence, and without either a charge or conviction of Trump for any lawbreaking. This flimsy case to remove Trump from the primary ballot in Maine is about as solid as a house of cards in front of an oscillating fan.
Bellows, a solid partisan Democrat who served in the Maine state Senate before the state legislature selected her to be secretary of state, is not an attorney. She also served
