New York Elections Board Keeps Trump on State Primary Ballot
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite objections from Democratic lawmakers, former President Donald Trump can remain on the New York primary ballot, the state’s Board of Elections declared yesterday.
In December, five Democratic state senators from New York sent a letter to the board of elections urging the agency to exclude Trump from the state’s primary and general election ballot for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. “The January 6 insurrection was a violent uprising against the United States that tragically resulted in loss of multiple lives,” the letter said. “That dark day in our nation’s history was led, facilitated, and encouraged by Trump. The Board must not allow those who participated to run again for office against the mandate of the Constitution.”
But the New York Board of Elections determined that Trump is still eligible to be on the state’s ballots. The bipartisan, four-person commission that runs the board of elections said that they received “a bunch of correspondence” asking to have Trump removed from the state’s ballots but none of the requests apparently followed the correct steps for objecting to a candidate’s candidacy, according to Politico.
Despite the ruling, New York Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D), who spearheaded the letter urging Trump’s disqualification from the state’s ballots, yesterday filed an objection with the New York State Board of Elections to challenge Trump’s ballot eligibility. “The Board of Elections can still uphold the United States Constitution by sustaining our objection and disqualifying Donald Trump from the presidential ballot,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement. “As the Colorado State Supreme Court has already rightfully ruled, Donald Trump is disqualified from holding any elected office in the United States due to engaging in and inciting a violent insurrection in which he attempted to overturn the will of the American people while taking multiple lives. Should the Board of Elections fail to do their duty and rule Trump ineligible, I will see them in court.”
Hoylman-Sigal may not get the chance to see the board of elections in court as the matter is already set to be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in a separate case. Tomorrow, the Court will hear oral argument in Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to boot him off the Colorado primary ballot.
In addition to New York, lawmakers and voters in 34 other states challenged Trump’s ballot eligibility, with ongoing cases in 17 of them. The outcome of the Supreme Court case will determine Trump’s ballot eligibility across the country.
Read the objection to Trump’s New York State ballot eligibility here.