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Saturday, January 13, 2024

Washington State now has a Trump ballot removal petition at trial court level, a judge appointed by a Dem governor. Eight Kitsap County citizens petitioning.

Seattle Times

Court to consider removing Trump from WA presidential primary ballot

Donald Trump in downtown Manhattan on Jan. 11, 2024. Eight Kitsap County residents are challenging Trump’s place on Washington’s presidential primary ballot. (Stefan Jeremiah / The Associated Press)
Donald Trump in downtown Manhattan on Jan. 11, 2024. Eight Kitsap County residents are challenging Trump’s place on Washington’s presidential primary ballot. (Stefan Jeremiah / The Associated Press)


A Kitsap County Superior Court will consider a motion to remove former President Donald Trump from the presidential ballot in Washington state, part of a growing effort in states across the country to bar Trump from running for reelection because of his role in fomenting the attacks on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already agreed to hear a case stemming from Colorado, where the state Supreme Court barred Trump from the presidential ballot, ruling that he had participated in an insurrection against the United States.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars anyone who has served as “an officer of the United States” from holding “any office … under the United States” if they have “engaged in insurrection.”

In Washington, a special hearing has been set for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Kitsap County Superior Court. The case is titled “In re the Ballot Eligibility of Donald J Trump.” It will be heard by retired Judge Jay Roof, who was first appointed by then-Gov. Mike Lowry, and who also served as a Superior Court judge for more than 20 years before retiring in 2016.

The case comes from eight Kitsap County residents — Frankey Ithaka, Connor Shelton, Gwyn Johnson, Michelle Howald, Nicholas Roberts, Robert Brem, Shayna Hartley and Stefanie Shelton — who are challenging Trump’s place on the presidential primary ballot. Ballots for the March 12 presidential primary were finalized this week.

The eight petitioners, in an affidavit filed the day after Washington’s ballot was finalized, argue Trump “engaged in an insurrection” when “he and his supporters, without evidence, attempted to overthrow the election of Joseph Biden through violence.”

More of the same. It will be cumulative, not record shattering.

Trump has to employ lawyers - personally, or from campaign money? There is a difference.

Yet it appears a metro county with a likely shorter court docket was chosen, and the judge is coming out of retirement to hear the case. Expedited procedure, where it might be consolidated with the Supreme Court's hearing of the Colorado case; especially if there are unique facts found, or unique arguments of law.