WASHINGTON, Dec 29, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The US state of Maine on Thursday

blocked former president Donald Trump from its Republican presidential
primary ballot, the second state to disqualify him over his role in the
January 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Maine's top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, decided in
favor of the citizens who had claimed that Trump should be constitutionally
barred from seeking re-election after trying to upend the 2020 election.

Bellows said in her decision that the January 6 attack "occurred at the
behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President."

"The US Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our
government and (Maine law) requires me to act in response," read the
decision, which came in response to challenges filed by a handful of Maine
voters.

Maine joins Colorado, where the state supreme court this month found Trump
ineligible for the presidency, moves that will certainly be challenged in the
US Supreme Court.

Bellows said she was suspending the effect of her decision pending any court
appeal by Trump.

The decisions in both states invoked the US Constitution's 14th Amendment,
which bars from office anyone formerly sworn to protect the country who later
engages in insurrection.

"I do not reach this conclusion lightly," wrote Bellows, a Democrat. "I am
mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate
of ballot access based on Section Three of the 14th Amendment. I am also
mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in
insurrection."

Later on Thursday, California's top election official declined to remove
Trump from the presidential primary ballot in the most populous US state,
defying pressure from fellow Democrats.

- 'Attempted theft of an election' -

Trump's campaign quickly slammed Bellows's decision as "attempted theft of an
election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter" and called her a
"virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat."

"These partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on
American democracy," campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement,
accusing President Joe Biden and Democrats of "relying on the force of
government institutions to protect their grip on power."

Cheung said Trump would appeal the decision.

Fellow Republicans jumped to Trump's defense, including Florida Governor Ron
DeSantis who is also seeking the party's nomination.

"It opens up Pandora's Box. Can you have a Republican Secretary of State
disqualify Biden from the ballot?" he said.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine agreed.

"Maine voters should decide who wins the election - not a Secretary of State
chosen by the Legislature," she wrote on social media platform X.

A Democratic representative from Maine, Jared Golden, also said Trump should
be on the ballot.

"I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th
insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the
United States," Golden wrote on X. "However, we are a nation of laws,
therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he
should be allowed on the ballot."

- Super Tuesday -

The Maine decision comes as Trump remains the front-running Republican
candidate to challenge Biden in next year's vote.

The two are neck-and-neck in polls, and Biden has stepped up his attacks on
his predecessor in recent weeks, saying Trump "certainly supported an
insurrection. No question about it, none, zero."

Biden recently told a campaign reception that "the greatest threat Trump
poses is to our democracy. Because if we lose, we lose everything."

He described Trump as "sitting there, watching it unfold on TV as a mob
attacked the Capitol" in the assault by the Republican's supporters on
January 6, 2021, aimed at overturning Trump's loss to Biden.

The twice-impeached Republican former president continues to claim, without
proof, that he is the rightful winner of the 2020 vote.

He is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to
overturn the results of the election, and also faces racketeering charges in
Georgia for allegedly conspiring to upend the election results in the
southern state after his defeat.

Maine and Colorado hold their nominating contests on March 5 -- also known as
"Super Tuesday" -- when voters in more than a dozen states, including
populous California and Texas, go to the polls.

Similar challenges have been filed in other states as well. Courts in
Minnesota and Michigan recently ruled that Trump should stay on the ballot in
those states. Another ruling is soon expected in Oregon.