A SECOND state has removed former President Donald Trump from its presidential primary ballot just days after Colorado made a similar ruling.
The move further jeopardizes Trump's 2024 presidential run as states grapple with whether the former president violated the Constitution on January 6, 2021.
The decision was made on Thursday by Maine's Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who invoked the Constitution’s insurrection clause.
Trump will now be ineligible to appear on Maine's presidential primary ballot.
Bellows is now the first election official to take steps to prevent Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot as a GOP nominee.
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In her ruling, she wrote: "I do not reach this conclusion lightly."
Bellows wrote that while she is aware that she is the first secretary of state to ban a presidential candidate from the ballot, "I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection."
Trump's campaign has responded to Bellows' ruling in a statement.
"We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter," the response from campaign spokesman Steven Cheung reads in part.
"We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight."
The Trump campaign plans to file a legal objection.
The Maine ruling comes days after Trump was deemed ineligible to run for president by the Colorado Supreme Court on December 19.
The Colorado ruling cited Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which many voters have declared Trump violated with his actions and alleged engagement in the insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Trump shared tweets during the Capitol protests encouraging people to demonstrate while claiming the election results were stolen by Democrats.
But Trump was put back on the Colorado ballot pending an appeal.
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Officials in Michigan and Minnesota, meanwhile, have rejected to ban Trump from the ballot.
Other states may follow suit one way or the other in banning or rejecting Trump.
The US Supreme Court is expected to make an official ruling on Trump's eligibility for the presidential election in 2024, though a date has not yet been set.
That ruling is expected to clarify how states can rule on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
While Maine isn't considered a battleground state, Colorado is.
Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in the 2020 election.
Michigan, like Colorado, is also considered a battleground state in the 2024 election.
Voters in Michigan sided with Trump in 2016, but Biden won the state by a 3% margin in 2020.
