Times Union Archive photo by Michael P. Farrell.
On February 8, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the Colorado case seeking to disqualify Donald Trump from appearing on that state’s presidential primary ballot. After hearing the audio of the oral arguments in this case, most legal commentators now believe that the Supreme Court will reject the argument that Trump is ineligible.
Closer to home, Democratic voters, including one state senator, challenged the Feb. 6 decision by the state Board of Elections to place Trump’s name on the New York Republican primary ballot. The Board of Elections commissioners, however, made the correct decision, and the lawsuit seeking to remove Trump from the New York ballot must be dismissed by the court.
Under state Election Law, any nationally known Republican candidate for president may request a spot on the New York Republican primary ballot. Trump made his request to the State elections board in accordance with the requirements of the Election Law. He meets anyone’s standard for being a “nationally known” candidate. Once the commissioners determined that President Trump’s request was properly made and the “nationally known” standard was met, their analysis, rightly, ended there.
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The lawsuit challenging that decision will fail, for several reasons.
First, under Election Law, an objector to a petition or certificate filed with the Board of Elections may seek a judicial remedy to disqualify a candidate. None of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, however, is a proper objector to Trump’s filing. While some plaintiffs previously sent letters to the board demanding that Trump be removed from the ballot, this correspondence doesn’t meet the Election Law’s objection requirements.
Second, the lawsuit filed to remove Trump from the ballot was filed too late. A court proceeding to remove a candidate from the ballot must be commenced within a very short statute of limitations; the clock starts ticking when the candidate makes his filing with the board, not when the board makes a determination. Trump made his request to appear on the Republican primary ballot in December 2023. Under the state Election Law, the time for filing this lawsuit expired over a month ago.
The plaintiffs also fail to recognize that voters in the New York Republican presidential primary are not casting ballots for a specific candidate to be the Republican nominee for president; voters aren’t even voting for individuals to serve as delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention. Republican primary voters are voting only to bind convention delegates to cast their ballots for a particular candidate at the convention. While the 14th Amendment addresses an individual holding public office, it says nothing about the process for electing delegates to a party convention, or whom those delegates must support at their party’s convention.
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In fact, at the time of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, national party convention delegates were not even elected in primary elections. Primary elections for any public offices didn’t begin to emerge until decades after the 14th Amendment was ratified, and it wasn’t until the late 20thcentury that most national convention delegates for both parties were elected in primary elections.
Because of the nature of the New York primary election, the 14th Amendment argument put forward by those seeking to remove Trump from the ballot must be rejected by the court.
If the pundits are correct, the U.S. Supreme Court will put an end to the effort to disqualify Trump from the ballot. Before the Supreme Court acts, however, the New York courts must follow New York state law and reject this attempt to keep Trump off the New York ballot.
Joseph T. Burns is a Republican election attorney based in western New York. He is a former deputy director of election operations for the state Board of Elections.
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Commentary: Lawsuit challenging Trump's place on N.Y. ballot should fail
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15.02.2024
Times Union Archive photo by Michael P. Farrell.
On February 8, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the Colorado case seeking to disqualify Donald Trump from appearing on that state’s presidential primary ballot. After hearing the audio of the oral arguments in this case, most legal commentators now believe that the Supreme Court will reject the argument that Trump is ineligible.
Closer to home, Democratic voters, including one state senator, challenged the Feb. 6 decision by the state Board of Elections to place Trump’s name on the New York Republican primary ballot. The Board of Elections commissioners, however, made the correct decision, and the lawsuit seeking to remove Trump from the New York ballot must be dismissed by the court.
Under state Election Law, any nationally known Republican candidate for president may request a spot on the New York Republican primary ballot. Trump made his request to the State elections board in accordance with the requirements of the Election Law. He meets anyone’s........
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