Innocent until proven guilty? Voters split on Donald Trump being disqualified from Colorado ballot
CONCORD, N.H. – When it comes to politics, what happens in Colorado doesn't stay in Colorado.
A blockbuster decision in that state this week to keep Donald Trump off the GOP presidential ballot could have reverberations in political battles around the country.
Fights are already popping up in other areas to replicate or prevent decisions that would disqualify Trump from the ballot in other states. Some Republicans have floated trying to remove President Joe Biden from ballots.
At the heart of the brewing conflicts is a question: Should courts or voters decide if a candidate is disqualified for the presidency?
David Scanlan, the Republican secretary of state in New Hampshire, answered that question in September when he decided not to block Trump from the ballot.
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Scanlan told USA TODAY on Wednesday he still feels a decision about whether Trump is eligible to run should come after the primary season is over.
“If they find that Trump can't be on the ballot, then to me that should be dealt with either at the convention or shortly after the convention, not in the middle of the nominating process," he said.
Voters in New Hampshire and across the country are also weighing in, and their views reflect a polarized nation ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Republican voters in nearly every region of the U.S. told USA TODAY they're skeptical about the court’s decision and questioned its authority to rule whether the former president engaged in an insurrection. Meanwhile, Democratic voters argued the Colorado high court was simply abiding by its duty to enforce the Constitution.
The court, divided 4-3, held that Trump played a role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, and is prevented by the 14th Amendment from holding office.
Here’s a look at how voters across the country responded to the unprecedented Colorado Supreme Court decision:
‘Innocent until found guilty’: Voters say Colorado was too quick to judge
Voters in other states agree with Scanlan, including Scott Hunter, a 61-year-old senior lecturer at The Ohio State University. Hunter said that, while he doesn't usually support Trump, he sees the Colorado Supreme Court's decision as premature.
“At this point in time, he's been indicted on a lot of things. But he hasn't been convicted of anything yet,” said Hunter, who lives in Powell, Ohio.
“Not enough is known yet about what he did and what he didn't do,” he added. “It's quite really divisive, and I think it's really a poor choice on the part of Colorado.”
Alexander Eli, a 36-year-old from Minneapolis, similarly told USA TODAY he sees the Colorado ruling as a “waste of time.”
“He hasn't been charged with anything formally yet,” Eli said. “In the U.S., people should be considered innocent until found guilty in a court of law.”
Eli, who works in logistics at a trucking company, voted for Trump in 2016. He did not support Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
“I’d be happy to have him removed from the election,” Eli said. “But the law should rule the country, not politics.”
John Murray, 62, agreed that Trump shouldn't be booted from the ballot until he's actually convicted of the felonies he faces. The decision instead, he said, should go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“You have something that has national import,” Murray, a clinical and sports psychologist from Palm Beach, Florida, said. “It would be a mess if fifteen other states decided to take it on their own, to make decisions of such importance.”
Murray said he will likely vote for the former president in the primary and general elections. If the U.S. Supreme Court does uphold the Colorado court’s ruling, though, the former independent and now Republican said he would accept their decision.
“I don't want it to happen because it just seems so unruly, seems like it would just create more chaos,” he said. “But let the highest court in the land speak.”
Voters brush off decision’s impact in early voting states
Trump is leading in New Hampshire by a wide margin, but the race could tighten as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gains momentum. The Colorado case, however, isn’t playing a major role in how the state’s key voters are approaching the ballot box.
Many people holiday shopping in the state’s capital Wednesday said they hadn’t heard about the ruling.
Chris Jackson, a 74-year-old undeclared voter, said he believed the Colorado Supreme Court was "probably doing the American voters a favor” with its decision.
"Regardless of whether (Trump) wins or whether he loses, how would the United States look if they actually elected somebody to the presidency, who was also later to be found guilty of a felony," the software engineer from Hudson, New Hampshire, said.
Trump is facing four sets of criminal charges in both state and federal courts.
Jackson suspected most Granite State voters have already made up their minds ahead of 2024. What might sway locals, however, is whether the Supreme Court weighs in and makes history in the election.
"None of it means anything until it goes to the Supreme Court," Jackson, who plans to vote for Biden, said.
Several Granite State Republicans told USA TODAY they're disappointed in the western state’s judicial system, accusing the Colorado court of making a political move instead of a legal one. Not all fans of the former president, these voters said they don’t believe the courts have the right to prevent Trump from being on the ballot unless he is convicted of participating in an insurrection.
Trump has been twice indicted over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including a federal case and a case focused on his actions in Georgia.
Court ruling reveals tensions between Democrats and Republicans heading into 2024
The Colorado ruling is sure to have a ripple effect across the country, but that impact won't include bringing voters together from across the aisle.
For example, Alex Berthelot, a 23-year-old from Metairie, Louisiana, called the ruling “absolutely asinine.”
“Coming from a person in Louisiana, I feel like my vote is now being just taken for granted. It's very disheartening,” Berthelot, a registered Republican, said.
“I mean, I'm still going to get to cast my vote here,” he added. “But I was kind of shocked that one person could just be stricken off the ballot in one state.”
Molly Tanzer, a 42-year-old sci-fi author and longtime Democratic voter in Colorado, told USA TODAY "I would love for us to start a tsunami of (Trump) being kicked off" ballots. But she believes the former president "has a way of getting around things, so I have a hard time surrendering to the idea it will actually happen."
Meanwhile, Tom Klapproth, a 70-year-old retired carpenter, agreed with the Colorado State Supreme Court decision.
A Democrat from Chichester, New Hampshire, Klapproth argued it's a court's duty to rule whether Trump should be on the ballot, given the case's tie to the 14th Amendment.
“The democratic institutions of this country are just too fragile to be messed with,” he told USA TODAY, while walking around the grounds of the New Hampshire State Capitol.
Klapproth, who plans to vote for Biden in the upcoming primary, pointed to a statue of former President Franklin Pierce featuring a quote that read: “He was a gentleman and a man of courage.”
“Look at these guys, these statues, they were true leaders,” he said. “I don’t see that anymore.”
Contributing: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY