Replies

Question i’ve been asking from the beginning... still unanswered.

Exactly who in the DNC and on the hill does the required vetting re: candidates? What’s the process and who’s responsibility is it?

Can individuals re: process be issued subpeonas?

I can’t say if the DNC or RNC are responsible to make sure their candidates meet constitutional requirements. But each Sec of State is suposed to make sure the candidates for President and Vice President meet constitutional requirements BEFORE their names can be placed on the ballor of their states. That is my understanding.

Question i’ve been asking from the beginning... still unanswered. Exactly who in the DNC and on the hill does the required vetting re: candidates? What’s the process and who’s responsibility is it? Can individuals re: process be issued subpeonas?

This was a question I also had and sent my question to the Library of Congress - here is the question and their answer!

Patron: (My Question)
To the American Memory Team:
I am very curious as to why our government does not vet our presidential candidates before their names are placed on the ballot. I have found out as of recently that there is concern that our new President Elect Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen and another candidate named Roger Calero which was on the 2004 and 2008 ballot for president still holds a green card and was born in Nicaragua in 1969. I find this troubling. I have read over many excerpts from your books in congress and it expressly states natural born for a reason. Our founding fathers knew why they did this as to ensure that there was no division of that persons allegiance. I do believe that Obama having a dual citizenship divides his allegiance thus makes him ineligible to become our President. Please help me understand this. Especially at a time when our enemy would love to get into our highest office. As an American voter I trust that they would provide me with safe choices. They did not and I am now looking back at all of the generations of my family that fought for this country and I am saddened that they sacrificed for me and I did not fight for them. Now I will fight for them and ask that someone help us to do the right thing. Thank you!

Librarian 2: (Their answer:)
Your question needs to be more specific because it is not clear what you mean by "our government." It is not the job of the Legislative branch (Congress), the Executive Branch (President and the administrative agencies), or the Judicial Branch (Courts) to vet political candidates. It is the job of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and other party organizations to vet the candidates that represent their parties. None of these committees are government affiliated organizations; they are private. These committees do vet the candidates who represent them just as the Republican National Committee made sure that John McCain's birth in the Panama Canal Zone did not go against the U. S. Constitution, Article II, Clause 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;. . . ." because he was born in 1939 and the law was not passed until 1952. (United States Code, Title 8, section 1403). The United States of America does not accept dual citizenship. In order for a person to be naturalized as a citizen, he or she must take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America and renounce allegiance and fidelity to the foreign state. A person can not swear allegiance to this country and owe it to another. (United States Code, Title 8, section 1448). Alaska and Hawaii became states in the United States of America in 1959. President-elect Barak Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, so he is a natural born citizen. If you would like to see the U. S. Constitution and the United States Code, you can read them electronically. The U. S. Constitution can be found on the Government Printing Office GPO Access Web site , and the United States Code is available at . To see the U. S. Constitution, click on View All under the heading Legislative Resources. On the next page, click on U. S. Constitution under the heading Congressional Materials Committees, Calendars, and Procedures. On the following page, click on 2002 edition under the heading Browse. On the next page, scroll until you see Article II. Executive Department; click on PDF. The text of the Article will be on the next page. This edition of the U. S. Constitution is annotated, so you will be able to see court cases and other commentary on the Article. To see the sections of Title 8 in the United States Code, click on Search the U. S. Code on the home page. On the next page, insert 8 in the space for Title, 1403 in the space for section, and click Search. On the next page, click on the link 8 USC Sec. 1403. The text of the law will be on the following page. The date the law was passed is in the the parentheses after the word Source. To see the other sections of the United States Code, follow the same procedure. To move from section to section, you can click on the arrows at the top or bottom of the page. Hopefully, this information is helpful.

Law Library of Congress Public Services Division