Foreign-born Presidential Candidate to Appear on Idaho Ballots
By Greg Pruett • October 1, 2024An independent presidential candidate not born in the United States will appear on Idahoans’ ballots for the general election.
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai was born in India to Indian parents. He immigrated to the United States when he was seven years old.
Ayyadurai was removed from the ballot in November in New Jersey. New Jersey officials said that because Ayyadurai was not a natural-born citizen, he was not eligible to run for President or Vice President. Ayyadurai is challenging the move by New Jersey in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution lays out the following qualifications for eligibility to be President of the United States:
“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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Ayyadurai does not dispute that he was born in India. He is currently fighting legal battles in multiple states saying he is eligible to run for president and become president if he wins.
In Wisconsin, where Ayyadurai is fighting in a court dispute with the state, a judge issued an order refusing to force the state to put Ayyadurai on the ballot.
Ayyadurai has argued that nothing disqualifies him from running for president. In the Wisconsin case, opposition to the judge’s order said that presidential electors would ultimately determine if Ayyadurai was qualified, but nothing prevents him from running for president.
Additionally, Ayyadurai says on his website regarding the controversy:
“Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution referred to “native born” requirement for being President. However, “native born” was never defined. In fact the Maryland Legislature voted to make Marquis De Lafayette and his family native born US Citizens.
Regardless, the Constitution is not a fixed document. It changes with things called Amendments. The 5th and 14th Amendments combined with many Supreme Court rulings made it explicitly clear that it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL to discriminate between a Native Born and Naturalized Citizen.
Therefore, it is Unconstitutional to NOT allow DR.SHIVA to run and moreover to become President. This would violate those two Amendments, which abrogated/repealed Article 2 Section 1.
Finally, in 2011, the FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION (FEC) ruled a Naturalized citizen can run for President and raise monies privately but just could not receive matching funds.”
Idaho Dispatch reached out to Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane for comment on Ayyadurai’s qualifications to be on Idaho’s ballot. McGrane Communications Director Chelsea Caratinni told Idaho Dispatch that an official complaint has been filed and if they had received the complaint earlier, Ayyadurai would not have been allowed to say on the ballot.
Caratinni sent Idaho Dispatch a statement saying,
“Our office has received an official complaint regarding Ayyadurai’s qualifications. We will be contacting the candidate and asking him to affirm that he is a natural-born citizen of the United States. When he filed to run for office in Idaho, he signed and certified that he met the qualifications for the office. Our office verifies the qualifications of his four designated Idaho electors to confirm that they meet the requirements.
As you noted, the ballots in the state have already been printed. However, if we had received this complaint earlier, we would have removed Ayyadurai from the ballot.”
Do you believe Ayyadurai should be on the ballot in Idaho? Let us know in the comments below.
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Tags: Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, Idaho Dispatch, India, Natural Born Citizen, Naturalized Citizen, United States
First of all, the Constitution is clear…he is not qualified to be a candidate. Second of all…and the article doesn’t seem to address this: What are (if we were to assume he was qualified under the Constitution’s definition of a native born/naturalized citizen) his qualifications…that is to say what is his background in politics? Does he have any actual experience in government? Has he held any position at any level of government, local or otherwise? What is being said here seems pretty straightforward to me, but it’s what’s not being said that bothers me as well. I think he amounts to nothing more than a distraction, to be honest…and we have far too many of those in these days leading up to the election as it is. I say no…he should not be allowed to be on the ballot.
i like that the states (and the Federal government) are finally being forced into defining “natural born” and “native born”. This definition should have been a priority of the Trump-45 regieme after taking the executive office after Obama.
I see Phil McGrane is at it again, (with his holier than thou, election security and integrity, NOT.) Allowing a person NOT eligible to run for president on the Idaho presidential ballot.
He should be disqualified for lying on his application!
He is not qualified in the US and if he wants to run for office can return to India.
I’m not seeing how the 5th amendment applies. And the 14th ammendment was for post Civil War slavery issues. Just because it has been used like a sledge hammer to defile American values by various Supreme Courts does not negate the original intent of application and should be repealed as it no longer applies. It does explain how foreign born Obama was seen as a legitimate president by some.
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