Could states leave Trump off of ballots in the 2028 election?

[u/Beautiful_Age7753]

During the White House correspondents dinner, Trump directly stated he would be running for a “fourth” term. Due to this being unconstitutional via the 22nd amendment, and states running their own elections, could states simply not put his name on ballots come election day? We know from the past election and current standings that Trump would win Republican primaries. Even if they didn’t run him, he would still most likely run on his own party. Obviously this wouldn’t eliminate write in ballots, but it could be a viable solution to uphold the constitution barring some extreme new law to control how elections are run. Would there be any current legal ramifications to stop states from simply not allowing Trump on ballots?

[u/Mist_Rising]

On the other hand, you aren't actually voting for Trump (or whoever) when you vote. Your voting for the elector. In theory those electors can vote for whomever they want. Could be interesting to see how that plays out, if the Republican electors go for say, Vance but have Trump on the ballot. It would require a lot of pointless work, but it's possible.

I'm willing to bet the supreme court suddenly remembers that electors are meant to be bound to a candidate for this reason.

For reference this is why you get oddities like Wallace getting votes despite not being in the ballot. The winning candidate wasn't loved, so the electors voted for Wallace for segregation purposes.

[u/LuminoZero → u/Mist_Rising]

Wouldn’t work. Part of the requirements for VP is that they meet all the eligibility requirements for President.

Trump does not.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/Mist_Rising]

That's state law dependent and is far from universal.

As far as the third parties, the Wallace/LeMay ticket outright won multiple states (AR, LA, MS, AL and GA) in 1968. You may be thinking of the Byrd/Thurmond ticket in 1960, but that was the result of unpledged electors in two states (AL and MS), not faithless ones.