Voters file objection to Trump’s name on the ballot in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD, ILL.>> A petition filed by five voters on Thursday seeks to bar former President Donald Trump from the Illinois Republican primary election ballot in March, claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The petition, similar to those filed in more than a dozen other states, relies on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits anyone from holding office who previously has taken an oath to defend the Constitution and then later “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country or given “aid or comfort” to its enemies.

The 87-page document, signed by five people from around the state, lays out a case that Trump, having lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, fanned the flames of hard- core supporters who attacked the Capitol on the day Congress certified the election results. The riot left five dead and more than 100 injured.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of a group challenging Trump’s right to be on the state primary ballot. It said that Trump engaged in insurrection and found that the president, having taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, was covered by the 14th Amendment The ruling was among the citations used by Maine’s secretary of state to bar Trump from the ballot there.

Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn the Colorado ruling.

The Illinois State Board of Elections had yet to set the petition for hearing at press time, spokesperson Matt Dietrich said. The board is set to hear 32 other objections to the proposed ballot at its Jan. 11 meeting.