Illinois, Massachusetts Voters Seek to Get Trump Off Ballot

Facts

• The recent movements to attempt to remove former Pres. Donald Trump from state ballots is continuing, as groups of voters in Illinois and Massachusetts initiated proceedings to bar him from their states' respective 2024 ballots on Thursday.¹
• A motion backed by advocacy group Free Speech for People has sought a hearing by the Illinois Board of Elections, citing Trump's alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, US Capitol riots.²
• The group has also filed objections with the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission and argues that Trump shouldn't be allowed back into power, suggesting that he 'disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time' in America's history.³
• The petition to get Trump off the Republican primary ballot in Illinois and Massachusetts is based on the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution from holding office if they engaged in insurrection.⁴
• Besides former Boston Mayor Kim Janey, a Democrat, the challengers to Trump's eligibility to appear on 2024 ballots reportedly include independent and Republican voters.⁵
• Meanwhile, Trump has appealed similar decisions from state supreme courts in Maine as well as Colorado.⁶

Sources: ¹NBC, ²CNN, ³Common Dreams, ⁴Alaska Commons, ⁵The Siasat Daily and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by New York Times. From a mounting number of states, the wave of challenges to Donald Trump's eligibility to appear on the ballot is growing. Irrespective of the results of these attempts by an unprecedented variety of citizens, ordinary and extraordinary, the phenomenon shows America is shuddering at the prospects of Trump's brand of authoritarianism returning to the country's most important office.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by ABC News. These bad-faith, left-led machinations to short-circuit a candidate's entry into ballots are dangerous — turning the very idea of a democratic republic on its head. America's well-seasoned voters must be allowed to choose their candidate, and their wisdom must be trusted and respected. The Democratic Party is itself using deeply authoritarian tactics to deny segments of the American populace from voting for the extremely popular former president.

Predictions