WHO DOES THE VETTING?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 5, 2016) — In perusing some of the filings at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from presidential candidates over the years, The Post & Email noted that none of the forms asked if candidates running for federal-level offices are eligible for the offices they seek, specifically in regard to U.S. citizenship.
Each presidential or congressional candidate files a Statement of Organization, Informational and Quarterly Reports, and end-of-year financial reports. The 2012 Republican presidential candidate team of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan continues to file amended statements of its assets and expenditures.
On Saturday, The Post & Email inquired of the FEC’s press office whether or not citizenship or qualifications to an office are asked on any FEC forms. Surprisingly, given that it was a weekend, we received a response later that day from Press Officer Judith Ingram stating:
We then researched the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) to which Ms. Ingram referred, passed in 1971 and largely dealing with donation limits to candidates.
FECA was first amended by Congress in 1974, when the FEC was created the agency “to administer and enforce” the law. It was also amended in 1976 and 1979.
In 2002, Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) in an attempt to limit “prohibiting soft money contributions to national parties.”
Provisions which limited contributions in both laws were found to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, 2010 and again in 2014.
The FEC issues its own regulations which are published in the Federal Register.
Through lawsuits and ballot challenges filed to address cases where candidates are suspected of seeking offices for which they are not qualified, American citizens have discovered that the political parties do not require proof of a candidate’s eligibility, a topic discussed on the WheresObamasBirthCertificate.com (WOBC) radio show on Friday evening.
When challenged, state courts have said that it is not the responsibility of the Secretary of State to vet candidates, although it has been done in the past. However, in a case adjudicated Friday in Florida, the judge ruled that “The Secretary of State’s office oversees the Division of Elections and is the only body that can be ordered to remove a candidate from a ballot.”
The Electoral College has been cited as the body which would review a president-elect’s eligibility, but in 2008 and 2012, it refused to review the qualifications of Barack Hussein Obama despite numerous requests from citizens to do so.
The courts have also failed to ask for proof of eligibility when petitioned, and Congress has not assumed the responsibility of vetting presidents-elect.
The U.S. Supreme Court has “evaded the issue” of presidential eligibility.
Who, then, performs the vetting?
I have given prior written notice to Oklahoma Officials starting in 2014 and followed up in 2015 and 2016 that Cruz, Rubio and Jindal were suspect in eligibility for the office they seek. I also quoted Chief Justice Roy Moore (Ala. Supreme Court case #1120465) that the State Elections Officer, having taken an oath to uphold the US Constitution had adequate authority in order to investigate prior notice of such possible ineligibility. Some consider the office as ministerial only.
As the writing above, I believe it to be the states and certainly not a single political party nor the candidate alone.
This Texas form says it is for the General Election in State of Texas. Seems to me that a Senator would be part of that ballot. Note the fine print at the bottom regarding eligibility.
http://sos.state.tx.us/ELECTIONS/forms/pol-sub/2-21f.pdf
Here is the index of forms
http://sos.state.tx.us/ELECTIONS/forms/index.shtml
While the FEC does not require proof, I do believe the State of Texas may in the form of either oath on paper or checking some kind of box.
I’ve forgotten exactly the Constitutional language for requirements for a Senator, but Cruz may have defrauded the voters in the state of Texas. We have all heard that “Didn’t know I was Canadian” thing. Maybe worth looking into.
I researched this before. The FEC is not what many people believe it to be.
From Wikipedia:
Although the Commission’s name implies broad authority over U.S. elections, in fact its role is limited to the administration of federal campaign finance laws. It enforces limitations and prohibitions on contributions and expenditures, administers the reporting system for campaign finance disclosure, investigates and prosecutes violations (investigations are typically initiated by complaints from other candidates, parties, “watchdog groups,” and the public), audits a limited number of campaigns and organizations for compliance, administers the presidential public funding programs for presidential candidates and, until recently, nominating conventions, and defends the statute in challenges to federal election laws and regulations.
The FEC also publishes reports filed by Senate, House of Representatives and Presidential campaigns that list how much each campaign has raised and spent, and a list of all donors over $200, along with each donor’s home address, employer and job title. This database also goes back to 1980. Private organizations are legally prohibited from using these data to solicit new individual donors (and the FEC authorizes campaigns to include a limited number of “dummy” names as a measure to prevent this), but may use this information to solicit Political Action Committees. The FEC also maintains an active program of public education, directed primarily to explaining the law to the candidates, their campaigns, political parties and other political committees that it regulates.
Another reason we need Donald Trump, there is so many things that Washington overlooks it would take years to see that the laws were followed.
Example, Cruz recently renounced his Canadian citizenship, but fails to reply to the request of P&E to provide proof that he is a U S citizen. Since his Canadian problem, it has now been revealed that he is a Cuban citizen. What kind of person do we want as our president.
PS if he cant prove his U S citizenship, than he dosent qualify to be our U S Senator.