Shenna Bellows

Hearings on challenges against both candidates are scheduled for Wednesday, August 14, with opportunities for both the candidates and challengers to present evidence and argue their cases.

Maine voters will decide on three bond measures plus two questions dealing with the design of the state flag and limits on contributions to political action committees.

Maine voters will decide this November whether to keep the current state flag or revert back to a 1901 design, albeit likely with some modern updates.

The court's ruling forced Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to change her decision in late December to remove the former president from the ballot because she said he violated the insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution.

Best known as the leader of a national anti-vaccination campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still working to secure ballot access in Maine and other states for his independent bid for president.

Thursday’s arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court over former President Trump’s access to the Colorado ballot will have direct implications for a nearly identical legal battle in Maine.

In a brief statement, Shenna Bellows said her appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court "ensures that Maine’s highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted" as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to take up a similar case from Colorado.

Trump's legal team had requested a stay of his appeal, citing a pending ruling in a similar case by the U.S. Supreme Court. But Bellows says a delay will compromise Maine's March 5 primary election.

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 8 in the Colorado case, which leans on a similar reading of the insurrection clause that Secretary of State Shenna Bellows used to disqualify Trump from the Maine primary ballot.

The Maine House could vote on a Republican-backed impeachment order against Shenna Bellows next week, although their long-term strategy is to change the way the secretary of state is elected.