NY State Senator Challenges Trump’s NY Ballot Eligibility

Donald Trump

An objection has been filed to former President Donald Trump being put on New York State’s ballot for the upcoming presidential primary.

The Albany Times Union reports Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, whose district includes Manhattan, filed the objection after Republican elections commissioners cleared the way for Trump to be on the ballot in the April 2 primary.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today on whether Colorado can remove Trump from the ballot based on the so-called “insurrection clause” in the 14th Amendment.
Hoylman-Sigal spoke of his intent in December to try to block Trump from running in New York’s GOP primary and the general election, but the process required him to wait until the former president was formally placed on the ballot.

After the GOP placed him on the ballot on Tuesday, Hoylman-Sigal filed a one-page general objection form with the Board of Elections. Hoylman-Sigal is joined in his objection by New York City Council members Shekar Krishnan and Gertrude Fitelson.

The form does not include any specific complaints. It lists the address for Trump, a former longtime New York resident, as the Mar-A-Lago Club in Florida.

In Hoylman-Sigal’s December letter to the Board of Elections, he cited Trump’s lack of compliance with the constitutional “insurrectionist disqualification clause.” He pointed to the violent protests on January 6, 2021, at the nation’s Capitol, which was the same day Congress was seeking to certify the results of the presidential election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Any decision by the Supreme Court in the Colorado case could be instructive for Hoylman-Sigal’s objection in New York. Colorado’s presidential primary is scheduled for March 5, but mail-in ballots can be sent out beginning February 12. The counting of those ballots begins February 20.

Trump has insisted on his right to be on the ballot and has generally dismissed any wrongdoing on his part for the events of January 6 at the U.S. Capitol.