Minnesota Supreme Court Keeps Shiva Ayyadurai on the Ballot

The Federalist has this detailed story about the ballot access litigation filed around Shiva Ayyadurai’s attempts to get on November ballots as a presidential candidate. It reveals that the Minnesota Secretary of State had put him on the ballot, and that an objector had then sued the Secretary of State to force his removal, but the Minnesota Supreme Court said the objection must be overruled because the objector had not served Ayyadurai properly.

The article also reveals that Ayyadurai is also on in Washington and Iowa.

The author, Matt D. Kittle, takes the position that it is obvious that all states should keep Ayyadurai off the ballot, because he was born in India. But the article doesn’t set forth the precedents, nor the reasoning, for keeping him on. It does not follow logically that just because a presidential candidate doesn’t meet the constitutional requirements, therefore his candidates for presidential elector should not be allowed to run. If his electors were elected, they might vote for someone in December who is qualified. And even if the electors voted in the electoral college for Ayyadurai, the 20th amendment to the constitution has provisions for handling a situation in which a non-qualified president or vice-president were elected.

Ayyadurai also argues that the prohibition on foreign-born presidents was repealed indirectly when the 14th amendment was passed.

The article does not mention that in 1892, the Prohibition Party candidate for vice-president was under age 35, but no state kept him off the ballot, and he appeared on the government-printed ballots of every state that had such ballots in 1892, except South Dakota. And South Dakota kept him off the ballot for reasons that had nothing to do with his age. The party failed to file for ballot position in South Dakota i 1892. The article doesn’t mention many other presidential and vice-presidential candidates who appeared on the ballot in many states in the last fifty years even though they were not age 35.


Comments

Minnesota Supreme Court Keeps Shiva Ayyadurai on the Ballot — 8 Comments

  1. HOW MANY SQUARE YARDS IN A SPREADSHEET TO LIST ALL THE 2024 PREZ CANDS IN ALL 57 GERRYMANDER AREAS ???

    PLUS ZILLION FOOTNOTES – ABOUT OTHERS NOT GETTING ON THE BALLOTS.

    2024 FEC REPORT BY 2030 ???

  2. In Minnesota it is illegal for an elector to vote for anyone other than the presidential candidate they are affiliated with.

    It is not unambiguous for an elector to vote for an ineligible presidential candidate. An unqualified presidential candidate would be skipped, just as unqualified cabinet members can be skipped in the succession.

    A state might exclude ineligible persons on its ballot. Minnesota does not let presidential candidates run for another office in Minnesota.

    Texas explicitly requires presidential/vice presidential candidates to be eligible. It will be interesting to see if Ayyadurai’s write-in candidacy will be challenged.

  3. “The author, Matt D. Kittle, takes the position that it is obvious that all states should keep Ayyadurai off the ballot, because he was born in India.”

    Unless Kittle is consistent and thinks all states should also keep/have kept Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Bobby Jindal, John McCain, Chester Arthur, etc. off the ballot, that is a hypocritical position to take.

    If the uniparty is allowed to flagrantly violate eligibility requirements, then third parties and independents should not be held to a higher standard.

  4. HOW MANY COURT CASES SAYING THAT UN-QUALIFIED CANDIDATES CAN STAY ON BALLOTS OR CAN BE / MUST BE REMOVED FROM BALLOTS ???

    ONE MORE BASIC CASE FOR SCOTUS ???

  5. Let’s go back to 1968. Both Utah and California removed Clever off the ballot. The POTUS was left blank with the VPOTUS candidate was included.

    Let’s see how much of the India electors vote for Ayydural does an in road against Harris.

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