Florida SOS’s unsatisfactory answer to Obama Ballot Challenge
Posted by By GeorgeM at 1 January, at 02 : 18 AM Print
This (non)response from Florida Assistant General Counsel Gary Holland suggests that since there is no specific procedure to remove an ineligible candidate from the ballot, that it simply cannot be done and that officials cannot even try to figure out a way to do it. So, they would have him wait until the election is over, with the nation waiting with bated breath, while a court action is initiated and litigated. Simply asinine. Florida: what are you paying your overpriced civil servants for?
From: "Holland, Gary J." Gary.Holland@DOS.MyFlorida.com To: Redacted Sent: Mon 11/21/11 10:03 AM Subject: Fwd: FW: Information needed to Challenge A candidate's eligibility to be placed on Florida BallotDear Mr. (redacted): I respond on behalf of the Secretary of State to your email below. I thank you for your concern regarding the elections process. Currently, no requirement in Florida law exists for a political party to certify that its presidential nominee is qualified to hold the office. The statutorily established procedure for a presidential candidate representing a political party to obtain ballot position in Florida is for the political party to deliver a certificate to the Governor before September 1st of each presidential election year listing its candidate's presidential electors. Once the Governor receives the list, he provides it to the Secretary of State who places the names of the candidate on the ballot (see section 103.021, Florida Statutes). Please understand that the Florida Secretary of State performs only a ministerial function as a filing officer for all candidates, not merely presidential candidates. This means that the Secretary has no authority or duty to look beyond the filing documents to determine if a candidate is eligible. The Florida Supreme Court has stated: "The law does not give the secretary of state any power or authority to inquire into or pass upon the eligibility of a candidate to hold office for the nomination for which he is running." If a candidate (or the party in the case of a major political party nominating someone as a Presidential candidate) files the necessary paperwork under Chapter 103, Florida Statutes, which papers are complete on their face, the Secretary must qualify the candidate. The Secretary has no authority to place any demands upon a candidate once the candidate (or political party in the case of a presidential candidate) files the necessary qualifying papers with the Division of Elections. Again, nothing in Florida law requires the candidate or party to state that the candidate meets the qualifications for the office of President of the United States. No process exists in Florida law for challenging the placement of a presidential candidate's name on the Florida ballot; therefore, the only recourse is to institute a legal action in an appropriate court. Therefore, before an election, unless legislation is enacted to change the procedures, challenges against the citizenship and other constitutional requirements for a presidential candidate are matters that would have to be addressed by the courts upon someone challenging the candidate's qualifications in an applicable court. If changes are to occur, the members of Congress or the Florida Legislature must act as they are the ones with the ability to alter the qualifying procedures for presidential candidates in keeping with the constitutional requirements for the office. However, after an election, section 102.168, Florida Statutes, provides that any unsuccessful candidate for the office being sought, any voter qualified to vote in the election, or any taxpayer may file an election contest in the circuit court based upon the successful candidate's ineligibility for the office sought. Such contest must be brought within 10 days of the date the last board responsible for certifying the results officially certified the results of the election being contested. I hope this helps you better understand the presidential qualifying process, the role of the Florida Secretary of State in that process, and the applicable candidate challenge process. Sincerely, Gary J. Holland Assistant General Counsel Florida Department of State R.A. Gray Building, 500 S. Bronough Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 Phone: 850-245-6536 Fax: 850-245-6127 Note: This response is provided for reference only and does not constitute a formal legal opinion or representation from the Department of State or the Division of Elections. As applied to a particular set of facts or circumstances, interested parties should refer to the Florida Statutes and applicable case law, and/or consult an attorney to represent their interests before drawing any legal conclusions or relying upon the information provided. Florida has a very broad public records law. Written communications to or from state officials regarding state business constitute public records and are available to the public and media upon request unless the information is subject to a specific statutory exemption. Therefore, this email and any that you sent that generated this response may be subject to public disclosure. [1] The Department of State is leading the commemoration of Florida's 500th anniversary in 2013. For more information, please go to www.fla500.com [2]. Secretary of State Kurt Browning is committed to maintaining a high level of service in all areas of the Department of State. If you have feedback on your service, please take the department's Customer Satisfaction Survey. Thank you in advance for your participation. DOS Customer Satisfaction Survey [3] -----Original Message----- From: (redacted) Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 4:40 PM To: Secretary of State Subject: Information needed to Challenge A candidate's eligibility to be placed on Florida Ballot Secretary Of State Kurt S. Browning Could you please furnish me with the necessary information to submit a challenge to the placement of Barack Obama's name on our Florida ballot for President in 2012? What is the time frame for submitting a challenge,and fees necessary to submit? A Natural Born Citizen Of The United States Of America (redacted personal info) Links: ------ [1] http://www.fla500.com/ [2] http://www.fla500.com/ [3] http://survey.dos.state.fl.us/index.aspx?email=Gary.Holland@DOS.MyFlorida.com
As you can see HERE, Holland hasn’t changed his tune in four years and it worked last time, did it not?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only a natural born citizen can legally be President of the USA. ”Obama” is not one.
It looks like the challenge is entered into the grand jury as false swearing:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0104/0104ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2011&Title=-%3E2011-%3EChapter%20104
The 2011 Florida Statutes
Title IX
ELECTORS AND ELECTIONS Chapter 104
ELECTION CODE: VIOLATIONS; PENALTIES View Entire Chapter
CHAPTER 104
ELECTION CODE: VIOLATIONS; PENALTIES
Title IX
ELECTORS AND ELECTIONS Chapter 104
ELECTION CODE: VIOLATIONS; PENALTIES View Entire Chapter
104.011?False swearing; submission of false voter registration information.—
(1)?A person who willfully swears or affirms falsely to any oath or affirmation, or willfully procures another person to swear or affirm falsely to an oath or affirmation, in connection with or arising out of voting or elections commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(2)?A person who willfully submits any false voter registration information commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
History.—s. 15, ch. 14715, 1931; CGL 1936 Supp. 8202(6); s. 8, ch. 26870, 1951; s. 19, ch. 71-136; s. 33, ch. 77-175; s. 38, ch. 94-224; s. 31, ch. 97-13.
Chapter 104
ELECTION CODE: VIOLATIONS; PENALTIES View Entire Chapter
104.43?Grand juries; special investigation.—The grand jury in any circuit shall, upon the request of any candidate or qualified voter, make a special investigation when it convenes during a campaign preceding any election day to determine whether there is any violation of the provisions of this code, and shall return indictments when sufficient ground is found.
History.—s. 8, ch. 26870, 1951; s. 35, ch. 77-175.
Title IX
ELECTORS AND ELECTIONS Chapter 99
CANDIDATES View Entire Chapter
99.021?Form of candidate oath.—
2.?Each candidate for federal office, whether a party candidate, a candidate with no party affiliation, or a write-in candidate, in order to qualify for nomination or election to office shall take and subscribe to an oath or affirmation in writing. A copy of the oath or affirmation shall be made available to the candidate by the officer before whom such candidate seeks to qualify and shall be substantially in the following form:
State of Florida
County of
Before me, an officer authorized to administer oaths, personally appeared (please print name as you wish it to appear on the ballot) , to me well known, who, being sworn, says that he or she is a candidate for the office of ; that he or she is qualified under the Constitution and laws of the United States to hold the office to which he or she desires to be nominated or elected; that he or she has qualified for no other public office in the state, the term of which office or any part thereof runs concurrent with that of the office he or she seeks; and that he or she will support the Constitution of the United States.
(Signature of candidate)
(Address)
Sworn to and subscribed before me this day of , (year) , at County, Florida.
(Signature and title of officer administering oath)
Zeb Blanchard, 4 months ago
“Currently, no requirement in Florida law exists for a political
party to certify that its presidential nominee is qualified to hold
the office.”
This is a blatant lie from the FL SOS rep as shown in FL statute 99.021 above. It is also a paradigm that we are seeing more and more, i.e. “it is so because the SOS said so”.
The analogy to this situation can be found in Greg Palast’s book “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” where he exposed Bush II’s little brother Jeb for expunging 57,700 liberal voters from the roles just before the 2000 election. Palast is American but publishes in the U.K. because the American media won’t print his stuff. This story didn’t make it into American media because, in the case of CBS: “We called Jeb Bush’s office.”
So the lesson here is why are we taking the word of the SOS? They’ll lie and mislead to cover their butt or candidate, as the case may be.
Zeb Blanchard, 4 months ago
Zeb,
I have gone round and round w/ Gary Holland. The Federal Candidate Oath that you refer to was ignored for many years, probably criminally, as the State of Fl. gave all vetting responsibility away to Congress and the Political Parties in the Presidential Preference Selection Committee.
When confronted w/ the fact that the legal oath of 99.021(2) was ignored, the criminals simply added 99.021(2)(3) to the statutes in 4/2011 w/ the passage of HB 1355. That statute excuses POTUS and VP candidates from taking that oath. The question then becomes, so why do they need that statute now, if they were legally following the law before? HB 1355 ALSO took away any vetting mechanism from the Presidential Primary Selection Committee– which used to have a provision for removal of a candidate from the ballot by a member of that candidates own party– but that was taken out by HB1355. Also the Nomination Certificate for the State of Fla proclaims the nominated Candidate as “Duly Nominated” not “Constitutionally eligible”.
As such NO ONE in the government of Fla. or the Political Parties is saying whether any Presidential Candidate is eligible– thus it is up to We the People.
The Statute of “Contest of Election” ONLY provides for the contest of eligibility AFTER an election or Nomination IS CERTIFIED (w/in 10 days). I Repeat Fl. SS. ONLY provides for Contest of Election AFTER the election NOT BEFORE. The statute must be followed to a T or else it will be dismissed, and made to look frivolous. I will say that it gives me pause that the statute gives no remedy if the grounds for Contest are proven true. The only remedy is given by challenge from ANOTHER Candidate. Court precedents do support a remedy however (see Cherry v. Stone (265 so. 2d.56,58) Fla. 1972)
Mick, 4 months ago
[...] http://obamaballotchallenge.com/florida-soss-unsatisfactory-answer-to-obama-ballot-challenge [...]
Obama FL ballot challenge, Florida advisory opinion, Abdul Hassan and Obama not natural born citizens, Litigation or contested election | Citizen WElls, 3 months ago
You notice he didn’t give the citation for that Florida Supreme Court case — maybe because we might look it up and it might say what a challenger SHOULD do!
Fred, 3 months ago