Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wrote an opinion piece decrying those who wish to bar former President Trump from running in the 2024 election, suggesting that voters, not lawyers, should decide.
Some of Trump’s critics have argued that a rule enshrined in the United States Constitution could bar Trump from being on the ballot in the 2024 election. The legal theory proposes that Trump would be subject to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the Disqualification Clause — which bars individuals who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against America, or aided those engaged in such, from holding office, citing Jan. 6.
Raffensperger famously pushed back against Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Now, almost 3 years later, he responded to this call to use the 14th Amendment by writing an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, titled “I Can’t Keep Trump Off the Ballot,” comparing those who call to bar him from the ballot to others who have contested elections, including Trump himself.
After observing that the 14th Amendment was made to prevent Confederate officials from regaining power after losing the Civil War, Raffensperger noted that modern activists are now “urging secretaries of state like me to bar Mr. Trump from the ballot unilaterally.” He derided this tactic as merely the “newest way of attempting to short-circuit the ballot box.”
ATTEMPT TO BAR TRUMP FROM 2024 BALLOT GAINS STEAM DESPITE ‘DUBIOUS’ AND ‘DANGEROUS’ LEGAL ARGUMENTS: EXPERTS
“Since 2018, Georgia has seen losing candidates and their lawyers try to sue their way to victory. It doesn’t work,” he recalled. “Stacey Abrams’s claims of election mismanagement following the 2018 election were rejected in court, as were Mr. Trump’s after the 2020 election.”
He warned that barring Trump from even being an option for voters would not only be an “un-American” act, but would actually harm the reputation of…
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