CITIZENS ATTEMPT TO VET CANDIDATES, AS POLITICAL PARTIES REFUSE
by Sharon Rondeau
(Nov. 27, 2015)) — On Tuesday, the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission heard challenges to the candidacy of a number of presidential candidates including Sen. Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Bobby Jindal, the latter of whom suspended his campaign a week prior to the hearing.
The Ballot Law Commission is under the jurisdiction of the New Hampshire Secretary of State.
Ballot challenges were largely based on the challengers’ contention that the candidates are not “natural born Citizens” as required by Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution for the president and commander-in-chief. However, the challenge to Sanders, filed by presidential candidate Andy Martin, claimed that as a U.S. senator identifying himself as an “Independent,” Sanders could not seek the nomination for the presidency from the Democrat Party.
The challenge to Trump’s placement on the New Hampshire ballot involved a resident of that state’s claim that his past political positions were more closely aligned with the Democrat Party and that Trump had shown no evidence that he was a registered Republican. Trump’s attorney disagreed, contending that Trump is registered as a Republican in the state of New York.
The Ballot Law Commission ruled unanimously that all candidates whose ballot placement was challenged would remain on the ballot.
In the case of Sanders, CNN reported that “In order to be on the ballot in the state, candidates must be a registered member of either the Democrat or Republican party” and “Sanders is an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, representing neighboring Vermont. When he filed for the New Hampshire primary earlier this month, he stated he was running as a Democrat and the state’s secretary of state did not challenge his qualifications.”
Following the hearing, the Dallas Morning News’s Todd J. Gillman reported, “Regardless of Canadian birth, Ted Cruz survives ballot challenge in New Hampshire.” Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and claims to be a “natural born Citizen” by virtue of his U.S.-citizen mother. His father was a citizen of Cuba, then Canada, until he became a U.S. citizen in 2005 when his son was approximately 35 years old.
In August 2013, Gillman posted an image purported to be Cruz’s birth certificate from the province of Alberta and reported that Cruz was born a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen. Gillman did not question the qualifications of Barack Hussein Obama, who also claimed dual citizenship with Kenya and the U.S. and whose long-form birth certificate and Selective Service registration form were found by a criminal investigation to be “computer-generated forgeries.”
Just after Cruz declared his candidacy in March, The Post & Email submitted FOIA requests to the U.S. State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Selective Service System, U.S. Department of Education, and the Federal Trade Commission for documents relating to Cruz’s citizenship. We also sent a letter by certified mail to Cruz campaign headquarters which was acknowledged but received no response.
The only agency which released personal documentation on Cruz was the Selective Service System, which explained in a letter that Cruz’s registration with Selective Service was effected through a college financial aid application which the U.S. Department of Education said it could not release out of “privacy” concerns.
Since 2007, anyone questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility was ridiculed, threatened, marginalized, and defamed by a group of Obama supporters known as “Obots,” at least one of whom was found to have been employed by DARPA, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense. The media also scoffed at “birthers” who questioned anything about Obama’s life story, despite its many inconsistencies as reported by the mainstream media itself over the years.
While maintaining all candidates on the New Hampshire ballot, the Ballot Commission indicated in a statement that the question of the definition of “natural born Citizen” needed to be defined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite several challenges to Obama’s eligibility in 2008 before he took office, the high court has failed to hear the matter on its merits. In April 2010, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas told a congressional committee that the court was “evading the issue.”
Early in 2011, Trump had publicly challenged Obama to release his “long-form” birth certificate to prove that he was born in the U.S. and presumably eligible for the presidency. When on April 27 of that year, the White House released what it said was a scan of a certified copy of the document obtained from the Hawaii Department of Health, Trump took credit and said that a group of aides would “look at it]” to determine its authenticity.
In a meeting in his New York office on April 8, 2011, Trump predicted that the White House would release a forgery representing Obama’s birth certificate, according to attendee Jeff Lichter.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who commissioned the criminal investigation by his Cold Case Posse into the long-form birth certificate in September 2011, has said that Obama is “likely not qualified to work at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.”
On Friday, a challenger to Cruz, Jindal, and Rubio contacted an attorney representing Donald Trump with the following message:
From: Robert Laity
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2015 3:04 PM
To: Donald McGahn, Esq ; Donald Trump
Subject: The ineligibility of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio for the Presidency
Donald McGahn,Esq.
Counsel to Donald Trump
Dear Mr. McGahn,
Mr. Trump, as a candidate for President has standing to dispute the bona-fides of other candidates. I filed a challenge with the NH Ballot Law Commission against Rubio,Jindal and Cruz who are not “Natural Born Citizens”. Please read my submissions on that subject. The ineligible candidates should be excluded from the campaign and from continuing their unlawful attempts to usurp the Presidency.
I have filed challenges against Barack Obama in the past. See: Laity v NY, US Supreme Court, Cert. Denied.
There is no “President” Obama: http://www.thepostemail.com/09/17/2010/there-is-no-president-obama/
Robert C. Laity
Founder and President, Society for the
Preservation of our American Republic
Petitioner
Laity v Cruz,Rubio,Jindal –NH BLC #2015-4
Laity had submitted comments to Gillman’s article published on Tuesday and also exchanged several emails with Gillman about his ballot challenge to Cruz’s candidacy. Laity believes that the definition of “natural born Citizen” is “born in the United States to two U.S.-citizen parents.”
The Republican Party has not responded to citizen and media requests to take a position on the definition of the term, and many believe that the Democrat Party did not vet Obama’s credentials.
Democrat presidential candidate Cody Robert Judy has also asked whether or not Trump would challenge Rubio, Cruz and Jindal and has challenged Obama’s eligibility twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.