The Colorado Secretary of State announced plans to include former President Trump on the Colorado 2024 ballot after the state’s Supreme Court voted to remove him last week.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she would include Trump on the primary ballot on the Jan. 5 certification deadline unless the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the lower court's ruling or declines to take up the case.
“Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado Ballot," Griswold said in a statement. “The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. This decision is now being appealed," she continued. "I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election."
A day before, the Colorado Republican State Central Committee appealed Trump's disqualification from the state’s ballot. This marks a significant victory for the former president.
The state’s GOP argued that the Supreme Court’s decision violated the First Amendment Right of Association. They claimed that preventing the Republican Party from choosing its candidate infringed constitutional rights.
“By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials,” lawyers representing the Colorado GOP wrote. “Rejecting a long history of precedent, a state Supreme Court has now concluded that individual litigants, state courts, and secretaries of state in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have authority to enforce Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its ruling until Jan. 4 to allow time for an appeal to its decision. The U.S. Supreme Court has until March 5 to make its decision.
However, that date throws a wrench in the sequence.
The deadline for 2024 primary ballots to be sent out to military voters is Jan. 20, while Feb. 12 is the first day that ballots will be mailed out to voters. Feb. 26 is the first day of primary voting.