STATE BOARD: TRUMP TO STAY ON BALLOT IN ILLINOIS
U.S. Supreme Court considering similar case from Colorado
The Illinois State Board of Elections rejected a complaint Tuesday that accused former President Donald Trump of insurrection by trying to remain in office after losing the 2020 election and that sought to disqualify him from the state’s primary ballot.
The appointed eightmember board, which includes four Democrats and four Republicans, determined unanimously that Trump could appear on the March 19 ballot and that the board did not have the authority to decide whether he had engaged in insurrection. Lawyers for residents who challenged Trump’s eligibility said they planned to appeal in the courts.
Although the Illinois result was a victory for Trump, the process revealed potential vulnerabilities in his arguments as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a separate case out of Colorado about whether he is eligible for this year’s ballot.
Two Republicans who heard the Illinois case — an elections board member who is a former prosecutor, and a former judge appointed by the board to hear arguments — said they believed Trump had engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when a riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol disrupted the certification of the presidential election.
“There is no doubt in my mind that he manipulated, instigated, aided and abetted an insurrection on Jan. 6,” Catherine McCrory, the Republican board member, said before casting her vote Tuesday in a downtown Chicago conference room.
Clark Erickson, the former GOP judge appointed to hear arguments, reached similar conclusions. In an opinion released over the weekend, Erickson said he believed Trump had engaged in insurrection but added that he did not believe the board had the authority to disqualify Trump on those grounds and that the question should be left to the courts.
“The evidence shows that President Trump understood the divided political climate in the United States,” wrote Erickson, who previously served as a state judge in Kankakee County. He added that Trump “exploited that climate for his own political gain by falsely and publicly claiming the election was stolen from him, even though every single piece of evidence demonstrated that his claim was demonstrably false.”
Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president this year, has faced official challenges to his candidacy in 35 states and has so far been found ineligible for primaries in two of them, Colorado and Maine. Trump is still likely to appear on the primary ballots in both of those states because the ineligibility decisions are on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers an appeal of the Colorado ruling. Courts in several other states have allowed Trump to remain on their primary ballots.
The Illinois challenge, like those in other states, is based on a clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bans government officials who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly denied that he engaged in insurrection, and argued that in any case, the constitutional clause in question did not apply to the presidency. Adam Merrill, a lawyer for Trump, said that he was pleased with the board’s vote and that his client was prepared to fight an appeal in the courts.