“YOU ARE INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.”
Granted, but are we charging him with a crime?
And what is your solution to keep unqualified candidates off the ballot? If they don’t have to prove they are citizens, or 35, or whatever other requirement there is, we could have Kim Jong Il come over here and run.
There has to be a way to verify a candidate’s qualifications, and I don’t see how “innocent until proven guilty” keeps us from doing so.
I can think of a few ways. The first is to find a person with standing to file suit. That would probably be another candidate.
The second is to have Congress charged with that responsibility. Congress counts the votes, so it would stand to reason, at least implicitly, that it is also the judge of the returns. It is unfortunate that the Constitution explicitly states that Congress is the judge of its own returns and fails to do so with regard to the EC, but I think a good argument could be made.
The third thought is that the electors could make their own determination.