What New Hampshire thinks about kicking Trump off the primary ballot

(NEW YORK) — New Hampshire voters will choose between former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary on Tuesday. However, it’s still unclear whether their neighbors to the north, in Maine, will have a similar set of options when it comes time for them to vote. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled that Trump could not appear on Maine’s primary ballot due to a 14th Amendment ban on those who have engaged in insurrection from holding office.

The Supreme Court will weigh in on the matter in early February, but in the meantime we asked Granite Staters about their thoughts. According to a University of New Hampshire poll, 50 percent of New Hampshirites support Bellows’s decision, while 42 percent oppose it. Thirty-five percent said they understand the 14th Amendment provision very well, while 42 percent said they understand it only somewhat well.

The reasons New Hampshire residents gave for their views on Trump’s removal from Maine’s primary ballot ran the gamut. Those who opposed it said that Trump did not engage in insurrection, was not responsible for Jan. 6 and at the very least was not convicted of anything. Those who supported it still expressed some hesitation about the precedent set by taking a candidate off the ballot, but said the 14th Amendment outweighed those concerns.

 

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