A long list of state lawmakers are marching forward on a number of legislative fronts to ensure candidates for president on their election ballots are eligible to hold the office.
But state Rep. Mark Hatfield, R-Ga., is taking it one step further with his proposed eligibility requirement – making it illegal for an elector to cast a ballot for an unapproved candidate.
The state's Presidential Eligibility Assurance Act would specify, "It is unlawful for any presidential elector from this state to cast his or her electoral college vote for a candidate who is not approved by the Secretary of State as having submitted adequate evidence of eligibility. Any person who violates this Code section shall upon conviction be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature."
The bill also specifies the evidence needed and authorizes "any elector of this state" to challenge the qualifications that a candidate would offer as proof. It calls for a long-form birth certificate that includes details of the candidate's birth, or "the candidate's birth records, adoption records, baptism records, Social Security records, medical records, school and college records, military records, and passport records." Computer-generated facsimiles won't do.
"The candidate shall not attach certified or other copies of nonoriginal documents or records," the law requires.
It also requires affirmations that the candidate never was a citizen of another country and never had dual or multiple citizenships.
