Illinois Elections Board to Vote on Whether to Put Trump, Biden on Ballots

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at a Washington hotel on Jan. 9, 2024, after attending a hearing before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals at the federal courthouse in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

General counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections held a hearing on Friday, ahead of a Jan. 30 board vote that will decide whether the frontrunners of both the Republican and Democratic parties will appear on the primary ballot.

Illinois will hold its primary elections on March 19. Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden had their eligibility challenged by local voters under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The bipartisan board comprises two Democrats and two Republicans, and its decisions may be challenged through court.

Voters who seek to block President Trump from the ballot argue his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, mean that he engaged in an insurrection.

Voters seeking to block President Biden from the ballot had argued he engaged in insurrection by assisting China, Iran, the Sinaloa Cartel, and MS-13 with his border policies, as first reported by the State Journal-Register.

When President Trump was disqualified as a candidate by the Colorado Supreme Court in December, it kicked off renewed efforts in several other states to remove President Trump, as well as new efforts to seek to remove President Biden from ballots.

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The Colorado ruling is now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has announced a hearing scheduled Feb. 8 and a written decision to be issued the same day.

Illinois Arguments

Friday’s hearing dealt chiefly with Jan. 6.

Activist group Free Speech for People, which has brought similar challenges in several other states, led the challenge against President Trump. During the Friday hearing, it followed a similar outline as previous cases, modeling its arguments on the January 6 Select Committee report and videos.

According to CNN, the hearing lasted about two hours. Retired judge Clark Erickson presided over the hearing and will be making recommendations to the election board ahead of its vote.

Matthew Piers, representing the local voters challenging President Trump’s eligibility, argued that President Trump was disqualified after he “repeatedly failed to denounce what happened on January 6 and has recently referred to persons convicted of criminal misconduct on that day as ‘hostages.’”

Scott Gessler, a former Colorado state secretary who represented President Trump in similar challenges in Colorado and Maine, argued the January 6 Select Committee was partisan and biased, and its materials should be excluded from evidence. He also argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to presidents.

Mr. Gessler argued the petitioners were using “highly spurious legal theories” to make a political point by barring President Trump from the ballot.

Outside of Illinois, a Colorado district court and the Maine state secretary have also heard arguments on whether Jan. 6 constituted an insurrection, and both jurisdictions ultimately issued decisions finding that they were. However, an insurrection ruling has not been made in criminal court, nor charged in more than 1,200 cases against defendants facing crimes related to Jan. 6.