A bill that would disqualify former President Donald Trump from Hawaii’s 2024 ballot squeaked through a procedural vote on Tuesday by a single vote.
In the 3-2 vote, the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 2392, HawaiiNewsNow reported. Unlike other states, Hawaii does not have a legal process to remove the former president from the state’s ballot, giving the state election officer the power to decide if he can stay on the ballot, according to the outlet.
The bill would “specify that election ballots issued by the chief election officer or county clerk shall exclude any candidate who is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
State Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat, proposed the bill last month in an effort to remove Trump’s name from the state’s ballot, claiming that he incited the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, which makes him ineligible to run for president under the 14th Amendment. The legislation would also prevent state electors from voting for candidates disqualified under the 14th Amendment.
The outlet reported that there were more than 300 negative complaints about the bill in comparison to 20 positive testimonies in support of the legislation. Jamie Detwiler, the president of the Hawaii Federation of Republican Women, testified against the bill, according to the report.
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“This is tyrannical, to say the least,” Detwiler said. “He has not been convicted, nor has he been charged with insurrection. … There is no evidence of committing insurrection, so please don’t waste our time on this poorly written piece of legislation.”
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Colorado’s decision to remove Trump from the ballot on Thursday. While the Republican front-runner continues to face ballot challenges, he has yet to be found guilty of inciting an insurrection, though Thursday’s decision could alleviate some of the other ballot lawsuits he is facing.
