Maine House votes down GOP effort to impeach election official who removed Trump from ballot

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Democrats who control the Maine Legislature on Tuesday rejected a Republican effort to impeach the state’s top election official for her decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the state ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Maine House voted 80-60 against the resolution targeting Shenna Bellows, the first secretary of state in history to block someone from running for president by invoking the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause.

Bellows, who watched the entire proceeding from the gallery, vowed to abide by any legal ruling on her decision to keep Trump off Maine’s March 5 primary ballot, which is under appeal in Maine Superior Court.

Republicans are furious over Bellows’ conclusion that the GOP frontrunner shouldn’t be on the ballot. They argued that her decision disenfranchised the more than 300,000 voters in Maine who chose Trump in the last election.

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GOP Rep. Michael Soboleski, of Phillips, called the secretary’s action “election interference of the