GOP rep warns House has final say over election after states deem Trump ineligible for ballots

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) issued a warning to states moving to keep former President Trump off the presidential ballot, saying the House of Representatives has the final say over whether electors from those states are certified on Jan. 6, 2025.

“Maine, Colorado, and other states that might try to bureaucratically deny ballot access to any Republican nominee should remember the U.S. House of Representatives is the ultimate arbiter of whether to certify electors from those states,” Massie posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter. 

Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, replied to Massie’s tweet about certification: “Interesting.”

Trump was declared ineligible by Colorado’s Supreme Court last week and by Maine’s secretary of state on Thursday under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, pointing to Trump’s denial of 2020 election results and actions leading up to a mob of his supporters attacking the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, as it met to certify electors from each state.

FILE – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., listens as the House Rules Committee prepares a bill at the Capitol in Washington, June 12, 2023. On Friday, June 30, Republican infighting erupted in Kentucky over gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron’s plans to attend a rally sponsored by an ex-rival who is now looking to challenge an incumbent GOP congressman next year. Congressman Massie said it would be a mistake for Cameron to attend the September rally hosted by Eric Deters in northern Kentucky. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

That normally mundane certification procedure in January 2025, Massie suggested, could be the mechanism by which Congress tosses out electoral votes from Maine, Colorado and any other states where Trump is ultimately denied ballot access.

Massie has endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary, and in 2021 did not vote against certifying the election results from either Arizona or Pennsylvania after the mob attack.

He elaborated in a subsequent tweet that any move to toss electoral votes in 2025 would likely depend on whether Republicans keep control of the House, where they currently have a slim majority.

“That effort [in 2021] was doomed because Democrats controlled the House and Senate at that time. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House now. Whether we keep the majority remains to be seen,” Massie said.

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The threshold for challenging electoral results on Jan. 6, 2025, however, will be higher than it was four years earlier. The Electoral Count Reform Act, passed in 2022, raises the threshold to object to results from any state from just one member from each chamber to a fifth of the members from each chamber.

Whether Trump is ultimately kept off any state ballots remains to be seen.

Trump’s campaign has pledged to file a legal challenge to the Maine Secretary of State’s decision to prevent it from taking effect. And in Colorado, the state Supreme Court stayed its decision to allow for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Maine’s decision in particular has drawn criticism even from Trump’s antagonists like Maine Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R), both of whom voted to convict Trump in his post-Jan. 6 impeachment trial.

Other states have rejected similar challenges about Trump’s eligibility, with the Minnesota Supreme Court rejecting a 14th Amendment argument and a court in Michigan ruling that its secretary of state did not have the authority to determine Trump’s eligibility based on the 14th Amendment.