New York Republican election officials made the decision on Tuesday to not exclude Donald Trump’s name from the ballot, despite the ongoing national debate regarding his eligibility for ballot access.
A lawsuit will be filed by the end of the day by the Democratic state senator representing Manhattan’s Trump International Hotel, as he intends to challenge the qualifications of the former president.
“These times are unlike anything we’ve seen before, with a United States president actually encouraging an insurrection to undermine the democratic election results in our country,” expressed Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal. “We cannot allow such actions to go unchallenged.”
Hoylman-Sigal took the lead in authoring a letter on behalf of the Democrats to the state Board of Elections in December. The letter requested the exclusion of Trump from the ballot due to his role in inciting the 2021 attacks on the Capitol. Following this, Colorado’s Supreme Court made the decision to block Trump from running in the state. Currently, this decision is under consideration by the Supreme Court.
New York’s GOP election commissioners gathered on Tuesday morning to officially certify the ballot for the state’s upcoming Republican presidential primary on April 2nd. Despite some considerations, they ultimately decided not to remove Trump’s name from the ballot.
Commissioner Tony Casale shared that they had received numerous requests to remove Trump from the ballot. He mentioned that they had received a substantial amount of correspondence regarding this matter.
They claimed to have reviewed the requests, but none of them followed the necessary procedures for challenging a candidate’s eligibility to run. This includes taking actions like filing official objections against the candidates and notifying them of the challenge to their qualifications.
“The purpose of these rules is to ensure that all candidates are given fair treatment,” explained Peter Kosinski, a Republican Commissioner. “To the best of our knowledge, none of these measures have been implemented.”
By the end of Tuesday afternoon, Hoylman-Sigal was fully prepared to proceed with a lawsuit.
He questioned why the language of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits candidates who participate in insurrection, is not being applied to Donald Trump. This raises the question of who it would be applied to if not to him.
The board removed a few Republicans from the ballot, including Florida businessperson David Stuckenberg. They stated that Stuckenberg did not meet the requirements for running nationally known campaigns.
Four Republicans have made it onto the ballot: Donald Trump, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and two former candidates, businessperson Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Ramaswamy and Christie can remove their names from the ballot by submitting certified requests to terminate their campaigns.
As of midday, both individuals had not yet submitted the required paperwork for the upcoming Tuesday deadline, despite being reminded of it in the weeks leading up to it.
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