While waiting for the Supreme Court, states are going it alone in voting cases against Trump

When the U.S. Supreme Court in January agreed to hear an appeal of a Colorado ruling that barred former President Donald J. Trump from that state’s primary ballot, many thought the court would quickly resolve the issue for the entire country.

That feeling only grew after oral arguments in early February, when justices across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical of the reasoning used to disqualify Mr. Trump.

But three weeks have passed, Trump has consolidated his lead in the race for Republican presidential nominee, and with Super Tuesday looming, there is still no nationally binding answer to questions that go to the core of American democracy: has a major political party’s likely nominee to participate in the uprising? If he did, does that disqualify him from running for president?

The uncertainty at the Supreme Court has caused states to go their own way, with varying results that have confused some voters. On Wednesday, a Democratic state judge in Illinois disqualified Mr. Trump from the state’s primary ballot, a decision she postponed until Friday to give Mr. Trump time to appeal. On Thursday morning, Republicans called the clerk’s office in McLean County, in central Illinois, unsure of what all this could mean for them. After all, early elections for the March primaries were already underway.

“They were angry — not very angry, but angry — about what was going on and they didn’t know what it meant,” said Kathy Michael, the county clerk, who is a Republican. “One had already voted early. One had voted by mail. And they asked: ‘The question now is: does my vote count?’

Without federal guidance, the patchwork of rules and deadlines has left local judges and election officials weighing complex constitutional issues. This week, the Indiana Board of Elections voted 3-1 to reject a challenge to Mr. Trump’s eligibility, although one Democratic member said she believed Mr. Trump had participated in the insurrection and should be removed from the ballot deleted.

“There has not been a uniform decision made by our courts,” Indiana Commissioner Karen Celestino-Horseman said at a meeting Tuesday. She added: “That is what is really before the Supreme Court of the United States. And as we sit here today, we don’t have that direction.”

The ballot challenges, which have been filed in more than 30 states and succeeded in three states, focus on whether Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat will prevent him from running for president again. The cases are based on a largely untested clause of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, that bars government officials “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.

The challenges vary widely in legal strategy and sophistication, and many have been defeated or dismissed. In some places, including Maine and New York, judges have stayed proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court rules. In other states, including Wisconsin and Wyoming, cases are moving slowly through the courts. But with several primaries quickly approaching, some states have gotten a head start in considering the merits of the challenges.

The bipartisan Illinois State Board of Elections unanimously decided last month that it did not have the authority to disqualify Mr. Trump under the 14th Amendment. But an Illinois judge, Tracie R. Porter of the State Circuit Court in Cook County, which includes Chicago, ruled this week that the board had erred and said it “will remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the general primaries in March. August 19, 2024, or cause the votes cast for him to be suppressed.”

A Trump campaign spokesman said the Illinois ruling was unconstitutional and was the work of “an activist, Democrat judge.” Mr. Trump appealed the case to the Illinois Appellate Court and asked last Friday to remain on the ballot while that appeal is considered.

If no higher court hears Trump’s appeal before Friday, the legal landscape will become even more uncertain. Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the Illinois board, said in an email Thursday that “because the judge has stayed her order, there has been no change to Donald Trump’s voting status for the time being.” He declined to comment further.

Illinois leaders told local officials they would have two options if the disqualification order went into effect, according to an email from a county clerk. Local officials could reprint the ballots without Mr. Trump’s name on them. Or they could continue to provide ballots with his name, but those votes would be “suppressed and not reported in election results.”

In Vermilion County, Illinois, where Mr. Trump won nearly two-thirds of the vote in 2020, Keith Smith, 50, said he would not vote if Mr. Trump were excluded from the ballot.

“I just don’t think it’s fair,” said Mr. Smith, a pilot who typically chooses a Republican primary. “He is actually being discriminated against.”

Not everyone saw it that way. Jim Williams, one of a handful of people who cast a ballot Thursday at an early voting site in Vermilion County, said he agreed with the disqualification and believed Trump had participated in an insurrection. Mr. Williams, 88, a retired Methodist minister, said he disapproved of Mr. Trump and had chosen a Democratic primary for the first time.

Trump will appear at the primaries in Colorado and Maine on Tuesday, despite being found ineligible by the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine Democrat Secretary of State. He has appealed those findings, and both decisions have been stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Colorado case.

Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who is Michigan’s secretary of state, said the country needed final approval from the Supreme Court and that she was surprised it had taken so long for it to rule.

The “clock is ticking and people are voting,” Ms. Benson said, “so the time is now for the Supreme Court to weigh in and provide that clarity.”

Farrah Anderson contributed reporting from Danville, Illinois.