You know that when you vote "for a president" you are actually voting for a named elector, and not the presidential candidate? The ballot has integrity (the elector must be qualified) even if the presidential candidate is not qualified for the office. It's up to Congress to determine whether or not the candidate with the majority of electoral votes is qualified, under the constitution.
That said, at least one presidential candidate was denied having his name appear on the ballot, Eldridge Cleaver, due to his being too young.
That's interesting. I did some digging and found it was back in 1968. Courts in New York and Hawaii ruled he wasn't eligible. The article says he still received 36,571 votes, but I don't know if they were write-in's or if he was on the ballot in at least one other state.
It's ironic, because Cleaver's party was named "Peace and Freedom". That same year in April, he led an ambush of Oakland police officers, and subsequently jumped bail and fled to Cuba.
A few years back, California refused to exclude someone from the ballot, even though they were clearly ineligible. I don't remember if it was due to age, or possibly even US citizenship. I think they said something to the effect of: "we aren't empowered to make that decision".
precedent was set by being denied to the ballot, as if it was needed, where the names on the ballot are assumed to be eligible to assume the office in the election
if you’re saying it’s up to congress to validate the person assuming the office, you would be wrong. congress leaves that up to the states.
chase it around if you’d like to prove it for yourself. i have. in the end, you’ll be back at the state level looking at the supervisor of elections who never collected any paperwork that verified eligibility. the supervisor was handed a list from the governor’s office... whose names were submitted by the parties in the states that met the filing requirements. of course, the qualification papers never seem to include verification of citizenship or NBC status for the office of the president and vice president.
any such paperwork should be available to the public