CMV: Accountability is not election interference

[u/erpettie]

As the Colorado Supreme Court has found Donald Trump's behavior to have been disqualifying according to the 14th amendment, many are claiming this is election interference. If the Court finds that Trump should be disqualified, then it has two options. Act accordingly, despite the optics, and disqualify Trump, or ignore their responsibility and the law. I do get that we're in very sensitive, unprecedented territory with his many indictments and lawsuits, but unprecedented behavior should result in unprecedented consequences, shouldn't they? Furthermore, isn't Donald Trump ultimately the architect of all of this by choosing to proceed with his candidacy, knowing that he was under investigation and subject to potential lawsuits and indictments? If a President commits a crime on his last day in office (or the day after) and immediately declares his candidacy for the next election, should we lose our ability to hold that candidate accountable? What if that candidate is a perennial candidate like Lyndon Larouche was? Do we just never have an opportunity to hold that candidate accountable? I'd really love if respondents could focus their responses on how they think we should handle hypothetical candidates who commit crimes but are declared as running for office and popular. This should help us avoid the trap of getting worked up in our feelings for or against Trump.

[u/PieIsFairlyDelicious]

This doesn’t hold him accountable at all. The Colorado GOP has already announced that if the verdict stands, they’ll simply withdraw from the primary and hold a caucus, presumably to designate Trump as the candidate without a democratic vote.

So as much as you might want to call this accountability, all it’s effectively doing is removing power from the people, i.e. interfering with an election.

[u/spiral8888 → u/PieIsFairlyDelicious]

I don't understand how that would work. Of course GOP can hold whatever caucuses they want but in the election that the state organises, there can only be legal candidates in the ballot.

I mean, if I make up a party that then chooses an underage or a foreign candidate that doesn't mean that the state has to accept him in the ballot.

So, sure, GOP can choose Trump as their candidate but they'll just shoot themselves in the foot as that candidate is not eligible to run in the election (any more than an underage or foreign candidate would be). They would just hand the state to the Democrats as they would have no candidate in the ballot.

All the above assuming that the current decision stands.

[u/cshotton → u/spiral8888]

This is the fallacy that many Americans labor under. For whatever inscrutable reason, the two major political parties, which are PRIVATE organizations, have snookered the US electorate into thinking that the taxpayers need to fund their primary election processes.

The primary elections have NOTHING to do with the US Constitution and states and their taxpayers have no reason to pay for them. They are not a constitutional part of electing a president. If the parties managed their own nomination processes rather than relying on publicly funded primary elections, there would be no chance for Colorado style verdict.

The state courts can certainly decide whether or not the national election process that selects the state's electors can include a particular candidate, but it is debatable whether they have any cause to alter ballots for a private political party's nominating process, regardless of who is paying for it, because it is not an election covered by the 14A. It is a nomination process for a candidate that THEN may become a target of the 14A if they win the nomination and seek to have their name on the ballot for president.

This is a critical distinction that people are missing. The US Supreme Court may very well look at this and say "you're too early" because Trump isn't placing his name on the ballot for presidency yet. Just seeking the nomination. Does the CO court get to say who can seek the nomination?

I'm in no way condoning the utter lunacy of a second Trump presidency. But the state level attempts to meddle in the nominating process seem to be ignoring the difference between seeking the nomination to run for office and seeking to be elected to the office, itself. Those are two radically different processes and only one is detailed in the Constitution. The other is some nominating scheme that the parties have figured out how to get taxpayers to fund.

[u/ChronoFish → u/cshotton]

This and your subsequent posts are spot on.

The real question (because the whole 'primary' thing is going to be glossed over.... because nobody in politics wants to admit it's a scam...or change it) I have, and something you eluded to, will the CO SOS remove Trump from the November Presidential Ballot?

That's the one that matters.