While there are currently efforts in several states to remove former president Donald Trump off the Republican primary ballot, Pennsylvania will not follow suit says Al Schmidt, Secretary of the Commonwealth, according to Victor Fiorillo for Philadelphia Magazine.

Referring to the January 6 events, the Colorado Supreme Court already barred Trump from being listed on the state’s ballot based on the insurrection-related section of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Maine has also removed Trump from the ballot, and there are several more ongoing lawsuits.

There have also been individual lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania to keep the former president off the ballot, but they have not gone far.

In late December, Republican Al Schmidt, the Secretary of the Commonwealth and former City Commissioner, was working on dismissing one of such lawsuits when the plaintiff voluntarily withdrew his suit.

Schmidt has no intention of unilaterally removing Trump from the ballot like his Maine counterpart did.

“Pennsylvania’s Election Code does not give me, as Secretary of the Commonwealth, the authority to reject a nomination petition because a potential candidate does not meet an office’s eligibility criteria,” he said. “In Pennsylvania, that is a question that can be answered only by the courts.”

Read more about Al Schmidt’s decision to not unilaterally remove former president Donald Trump from Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot in Philadelphia Magazine.

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