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BOSTON (AP) — Five Republican and Democratic voters in Massachusetts have become the latest to challenge former President Donald Trump's eligibility to appear on the Republican primary election ballot, claiming he is ineligible to hold office because he encouraged and did little to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The challenge was filed late Thursday to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s office ahead of the March 5 presidential primary.
The Massachusetts challenge, similar to those filed in more than a dozen other states, relies on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits anyone from holding office who previously has taken an oath to defend the Constitution and then later “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the country or given “aid or comfort” to its enemies.
In its 91-page objection, the voters made the case that Trump should be disqualified from the presidency because he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol Jan. 6 to intimidate Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence. It also says he “reveled in, and deliberately refused to stop, the insurrection" and cites Trump's efforts to overturn the election illegally.
The Massachusetts Republican Party responded to the challenge on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying it opposed this effort to remove Trump by “administrative fiat.”
“We believe that disqualification of a presidential candidate through legal maneuverings sets a dangerous precedent for democracy,” the group wrote. “Democracy demands that voters be the ultimate arbiter of suitability for office.”
Officials in Colorado and Maine have already banned Trump’s name from primary election ballots.
Along with challenging the Colorado ruling, Trump has appealed a ruling by Maine’s secretary of state barring him from the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.