Clark County voters will see Donald Trump’s name on the March 12 GOP presidential primary ballot regardless of the outcome of any legal challenges to the former president’s eligibility.
“We have already started printing ballots,” Clark County Elections Director Cathie Garber said Tuesday, adding ballots are being printed now to meet the Jan. 26 deadline to mail ballots to overseas voters or those in the military.
Whether votes for Trump will be counted or not remains to be seen.
Trump faces ballot challenges in 35 states, including Washington.
On Tuesday, a Kitsap County judge declined to hear a case challenging Trump’s eligibility for the primary and general election ballots.
Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bassett said the issue should be heard in Thurston County, where the state Capitol is located.
A case there is scheduled to be heard Thursday.
Frankey Ithaka, the lead petitioner in the effort to remove Trump from the ballot and a Kitsap County resident, said during court proceedings that the group of eight petitioners filed motions in both Kitsap and Thurston counties because they were unsure of the proper venue.
The petitioners claim Trump’s actions, leading up to and during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, constitute an insurrection. The petition asserts those actions disqualify him from holding public office under the 14th Amendment.
Given Thurston County’s “unique position as the seat of our state government,” Bassett said from the bench, “I do not believe Kitsap is the appropriate venue for this case today.”
Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s hearing, ballots cast for Trump may not be counted if the court decides he is ineligible to run for office.
Trump has already been ousted from ballots in Colorado and Maine. The U.S. Supreme Court has already agreed to hear a challenge to the Colorado ruling.
Tuesday’s court ruling came just one day after Trump scored a decisive win in the Iowa presidential caucuses with 51 percent of votes.
There’s no question that Trump’s name will appear on the primary ballot.
“The way we understand the Washington state constitution is the parties certify the name to the ballot and the secretary of state certifies those names to us. At this time, Donald Trump’s name has been certified to us,” Garber said.
In a statement released last week, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said he was “committed to presenting Washingtonians with the opportunity to make their voices heard in the presidential primary March 12, which requires printing ballots and sending them to registered voters weeks ahead of Election Day.”
The state GOP submitted five names for the March 12 primary ballot, including Trump’s, earlier this month.
