And let’s not forget Donald Trump basing his Presidential race on the birth certificate issue last year.
The conservative David Frum asks why, “…with rare exceptions, leading Republicans from the Speaker of the House downward played games with the birther issue.” He contrasts this nuttery with Bill Clinton’s forthright dressing down of those who thought 9/11 was a governmental conspiracy:
[Clinton] told people who continued to defy reality that they “looked like idiots.” He added for good measure: “We heard from you. You go away.” Loonies have a home in the Republican party. http://www.frumforum.com/why-didnt-the-gop-stand-up-to-the-birthers
Is it? In Sweden I can only find reference to it as a surname and looking into it for Denmark and Norway doesn’t find much either (although I am worse at that). The highly scientific method of searching on Facebook only seems to show people with it as a surname too.
Stupid question -
Assuming the above came to pass, could Obama just say ‘Suck mine, Georgia!’ and simply not be on the ballot there, binning 16 EC votes? (considering he is unlikely to win any EC votes in the state anyhow)
Has a sitting president ever not appeared on a ballot in any state in a reelection campaign?
Does the state of Georgia have the ability to deny a sitting POTUS to be included in the balloting?
Which agency of the state would do that?
The legislature?
The judiciary?
The executive?
Obama is NOT necessarily the Democratic nominee on the national ballot and still has to go through the formalities of getting his name on the ballots on all 50 states as the Democratic nominee. That’s true for all sitting Presidents running for re-election.
So, that means each of the Democratic candidates (and there’s more than 1 this year) has to go through the full formal procedure of getting on the ballot for primaries. A few Republican candidates had some issues with this in Virginia not too long ago.
But it’s nearly a given that a political party will nominate a sitting President from its own party and get lots of Party support for the run, so this is more of a sad/funny situation than anything else.
One thing to note is that “long form” birth certificates don’t really exist. They aren’t something a normal person gets or needs for any reason whatsoever. A certified copy of a birth certificate is all anyone in America has ever had to use ever.
The “long form” is simply the archival copy from the state. Not the certified copy they make with the information from the long form. The racist dirtbags who called for his long form were asking for something that no American (as far as I know) has ever had to produce before.
It’s like if a cop asks you for proof of insurance and demands that you show him the internal document your insurance company keeps on file with your details. The insurance card is supposed to be enough, but the Tea Baggers really don’t want to admit that there is a black president.
Remember this is for the primary, so we’re only talking about Democratic party delegates. But yes, he could ignore it and count on the rest of the party to nominate him. (Which would be very likely.) It’s not required to be in (or even win) the primaries to be your party’s nominee; they can nominate whoever the hell they want. But in practice the delegates will vote for who they’re expected to vote for.
Whoever the party nominates then has to go through the whole rigamarole again to get on the ballot in the general election.
Sure.
Ballot eligibility is a matter of state law, so whatever agency the legislature has empowered with regulating election would do it. In most states that’s the Secretary of State’s office or some kind of commission.
The executive. Malihi is an administrative court judge. Under Georgia law (and that of most states), eligibility of candidates for office is a matter of administrative law; administrative courts are part of the executive, rather than the judiciary.
Of course, there would certainly be an appeal, which would be handled by the normal judicial process.
Whether Georgia has the ability to keep Obama off its general election (rather than primary) ballots is a bit murkier. It’s a federal question, so the decision of a Georgia court would be subject to review by federal courts.
The really fun part? The federal court review would probably take place in Georgia’s Middle District - the same circuit where Orly Taitz was fined $20 grand in 2009 for abuse of the judicial process.
I keep thinking back to when the whole birther issue came up in 2008 and no one quite knew whose job it was to ensure that the President was actually constitutionally qualified to hold office. I think consensus was that it was up to the states, but that doesn’t sound right since most (all?) states allow non-NBCs on the ballot with the assuption that their vice-president elect would actually become president (I can hunt up cites if you actually need them). Also remember that when Arizona was considering a law requiring all presidential candidates to prove their eligibility for the office, it was lambasted as a racist move and I believe the bill died in the assembly.
So let’s try this again. Whose job is it to determine that the person running for/takes the office of President is constitutionally eligible for that office? The Feds or the States?
It’s the state’s job to determine whether the person is eligible to appear on their ballots. It’s the feds’ job to determine whether the person is eligible to take office.
The Arizona bill wasn’t lambasted as racist. It was lambasted as stupid, because it was clearly drafted by birthers (required the “long form” birth certificate, etc.) It also didn’t die in the assembly; it passed the house (for a second time) and senate and was vetoed by the governor.
Thanks. I knew it was on its way through the process and suddenly was gone and the last I had heard it was coming to a vote in the Assembly.
So since states do allow known non-NBCs on their ballot, what would happen if one won and then wanted to take the oath of office? Whose job would it be to step in?
However, at least in that event a challenge might have made some logical sense because McCain actually was born in the Canal Zone while Obama was not born in Kenya.
Congress. It’s their job to certify the Electoral College vote.
As a matter of real policy, it would be the federal courts’ job; some state would have to leave a candidate off its ballot and force him or her (okay, him) to seek legal recourse.