Oklahoma House passes 'birther bill' for presidential candidates
A week after Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have required the political parties to provide proof of citizenship for their presidential candidates to get on the Arizona ballot, the Oklahoma House of Representatives Senate Bill 91 easily passed through the Republican-controlled House by a landslide 77-13 vote Wednesday, the same day President Obama released his long-form Hawaii birth certificate.
Even Democrats voted 14-13 in favor of the bill that now gets kicked to the Republican-controlled Senate, which already approved an earlier version of the measure but must vote again because of changes the House made.
Rep. Sue Tibbs (R-Tulsa) who authored the House bill told the Associated Press that although others call it a "birther bill," her measure is not a response to the controversy surrounding Obama's controversial birth certificate nor of the birther movement that rose up in its wake.
"This is not a birther bill, has nothing to do with Obama," Tibbs said of the bill, which she says merely reinforces the Constitution that requires presidential candidates to have been born in the United States.
Brewer, a Republican, told CNN's John King on Monday that she thought the birth certificate debate, fanned by people such as Donald Trump, wasn't good for the nation. "It's just something I believe is leading our country down a path of destruction and it just is not serving any good purpose," she said.
Last week, a CBS News/New York Times poll revealed that 45% of Republicans and 45% of "tea party" supporters agree with the belief that President Obama was not born in Hawaii.
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Oklahoma's bill frankly isn't that tough. Its birth certificate requirement is for documents that don't have to be "long forms" and which Hawaii's standard abstract form should meet. It also allows for several other document types, including ones where there are only supposed to be one - like a Certification of Birth Abroad. It only states that copies of the documents will be kept by Oklahoma and I assume that means the original documents are returned.
Other birther bills made the original documents property of the state, to be subject to public inspection. Louisiana's was on of the most ludicrous, as it wouldn't allow someone on the ballot for federal office if they couldn't present a certified birth certificate with the name of the hospital, name of the attending physician, and with signatures of witnesses. The latter two categories aren't even on Louisiana's current certified birth certificate form. Other states' bills had secondary evidence that could presented.
Posted by: y_p_w | April 28, 2011 at 04:23 PM
I see serious constituional issues with all of these birther bills. And if it is not about President Obama, how come it never was considered necessary when Ronald Reagan or George Bush were serving.
In any case, the fact is that the US Constitution provides for electors in each state to vote for President of the United States. There is no constitutional requirement that those electors actually vote for whomever was on the official ballot and won.
Second of all, there is no enforcement provision in the US Constitution for the natural born citizen requirement, only the requirement itself. The only way to correctly address the issue is to amend the constitution to allow states to enforce the provision. The US Constitution does not require proof. Any state that tried to keep the official nominee of any party off their ballot would likely end up in court, and throw our elections in chaos.
Why not take it to the next step? Have nominees for Congress show their birth certificates or naturlization papers. Why not have every political candidate "show their papers".
It's not about Obama? Yeah right... Anyone seen John Boehner's birth certificate or naturalization papers?
Posted by: anthony | April 29, 2011 at 07:21 AM
Who cares what the right wing freaks in Oklahoma think about anything? They are the meanest, nastiest people in this country and the only reason they pushed this bill is because we have an African American president and they HATE HIM. It is that simple and if you believe otherwise you are either a fool or a COMPLETE LIAR like Sue Tibbs.
Posted by: Clint | April 29, 2011 at 07:25 AM
I can't wait to see what they do with the official "short-form" birth certificate that was provided by the state of Hawaii.
Oh, of course this had NOTHING to do with Obama. They must think we're all pretty gullible.
Posted by: pat | April 29, 2011 at 08:32 AM