A retired Republican state judge on Sunday told the Illinois State Board of Elections that Donald Trump should not be eligible for the upcoming election, but a court should make that determination, not the Board, the Associated Press reports. On Friday, the Board heard arguments from attorneys for Donald Trump and for those who wish to remove him from the Illinois ballot for participating in the January 6th insurrection.
Clark Erickson, the hearing officer for the Board who examined the petition, wrote in his opinion, “In the event that the Board decides to not follow the Hearing Officer’s recommendation to grant the Candidate’s Motion to Dismiss [thereby sending the case to the courts to decide], the Hearing Officer recommends that the Board find that the evidence presented at the hearing on January 26, 2024 proves by a preponderance of the evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection, within the meaning of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and should have his name removed from the March, 2024 primary ballot in Illinois.”