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Story · February 5, 2024

Illinois Ballot Challenge Still Puts Trump on Defense

By The Daily Fuckup Newsroom · From Trump’s February 5, 2024: Legal Gravity, Political Denial

Ballot fight Confidence 5/5
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Correction: Correction: Illinois election officials on Jan. 30 kept Donald Trump on the March 19 primary ballot and said they lacked jurisdiction to decide the 14th Amendment question. The challengers said they would appeal in Cook County Circuit Court.

Donald Trump’s Illinois ballot fight was still moving through the courts on Feb. 5, 2024, after the Illinois State Board of Elections voted Jan. 30 to keep him on the March 19 primary ballot. The bipartisan board rejected an effort to block his candidacy and said it lacked statutory authority to decide whether Trump was barred under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Challengers immediately pressed ahead with a court case, keeping the dispute alive as the former president campaigned for the nomination. ([chicago.suntimes.com](https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2024/1/30/24055750/donald-trump-illinois-march-primary-ballot-insurrection-objection-election-board-ruling))

The Illinois filing was one of several state-level efforts that turned Trump’s candidacy into a test of constitutional eligibility as well as politics. The voters who brought the challenge argued that his conduct around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualified him from office under the post-Civil War amendment. Trump and his allies have rejected that theory and said election officials should not be deciding the question in the first place. In Illinois, the board’s ruling did not resolve the merits; it punted the fight to the courts. ([chicago.suntimes.com](https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2024/1/30/24055750/donald-trump-illinois-march-primary-ballot-insurrection-objection-election-board-ruling))

That kept the campaign in a familiar posture for Trump: running while also defending his eligibility. The legal question in Illinois was not whether voters liked his politics, but whether state authorities had the power to remove him from the ballot on Section 3 grounds. By Feb. 5, the immediate result was clear enough. Trump was staying on the ballot for the moment, and the challenge was shifting into litigation over who could decide the issue and how. ([chicago.suntimes.com](https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2024/1/30/24055750/donald-trump-illinois-march-primary-ballot-insurrection-objection-election-board-ruling))

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