Galvin says Trump likely to still appear on Maine ballot

Massachusetts’ top elections official said he believes Donald Trump will likely still appear on Maine’s Republican primary ballot despite his counterpart there barring the former president from the state’s primary election, pointing to the logistical hurdles involved in producing state ballots.

William F. Galvin, the country’s longest current serving secretary of state, said he believes Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Colorado’s Supreme Court did a “service” by ruling that Trump is ineligible for their ballots under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, setting up a potential decision on the issue at the Supreme Court.

But in Maine, which holds its presidential primary on the same day as Massachusetts, the tight timeline could make a Trump banishment from the ballot moot, Galvin said.

Federal law requires state officials to send absentee ballots to military and overseas voters within 45 days of a federal election. That means Maine, Massachusetts, and other so-called Super Tuesday states holding their primaries on March 5 must send theirs within the next three weeks.

Ballots also must be printed well before then, further compressing deadlines that elections officials face. Bellows last week removed Trump from the state’s primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, but also said her decision wouldn’t go into effect until the Superior Court rules on an appeal.

“I think they will” ultimately put Trump on the ballot, Galvin said Tuesday after pulling, by lottery, the order of names on Massachusetts’ own ballot. Trump will appear fifth among the seven names on the GOP ballot, with Chris Christie being listed first, followed by Ryan Binkley — “whoever that is,” Galvin said. (Binkley is a Texas pastor and businessman.)

Bellows will likely have to send Maine’s ballots to be printed within the next week or 10 days, Galvin said. Trump has said he intends to appeal the decision. “Unless an appeal is resolved in that period, by her own order, she’s putting him on the ballot,” Galvin said. He noted that both Massachusetts and Maine must get overseas ballots out by Jan. 20.

Emily Cook, a spokesperson for Bellows, declined to say if Trump would likely appear on the ballot, as Galvin suggested.

“I’m not a betting woman, so I won’t wager the odds one way or the other,” Cook said. But she said a Superior Court judge would have to rule on an appeal by Jan. 17 ahead of overseas ballots going out three days later.

Galvin, an eight-term Democrat, had previously affirmed that Trump would appear as a choice for GOP primary voters in Massachusetts because the state Republican Party had submitted his name for the ballot.

He reiterated Tuesday that there’s a difference between being eligible to serve as president and actually appearing on the ballot. He noted that other candidates who would be ineligible to serve, such as former presidents Barack Obama or Bill Clinton because of term limits, could still appear on Massachusetts’ ballot.

Galvin said in conversations with Democratic activists, he’s argued that even if Trump were removed from the ballot, voters could still also write him in.

In that scenario, “they said, ‘Don’t count him.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?’ Galvin said. “Elections and primaries are about voters. They’re not about candidates. They’re not about offices . . . . We’re not going to deprive voters of their right to cast a ballot.

“A lot of people have said that this is about defending democracy,” he added. “As a citizen, I might agree with that. But I think the best way to defend democracy is to participate in democracy.”

Galvin on Tuesday also drew names for the order of the Democratic presidential ballot, which will feature US Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota first, followed by President Biden and author and self-help guru Marianne Williamson.

Galvin himself decided to put Phillips and Williamson on the ballot after the state party submitted only Biden’s name, arguing that both qualified as nationally recognized candidates.

Williamson has run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020, and has been “persistent and consistent in her activities” around the country, Galvin said. Phillips, meanwhile, has been spending significantly, and has been covered by national press, the secretary said.

On the GOP ballot, after Christie, the former New Jersey governor, the ballot will feature, in order: Binkley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.