Last month, the Party for Socialism and Liberation announced that it will run Peta Lindsay for President, and Yari Osorio for Vice-President. This will be the party’s second presidential campaign. In 2008, it ran Gloria La Riva for President. She polled 6,818 votes in tbe nation.
Lindsay is age 27, and Osorio is age 26 and was born in Colombia. Thus, neither meet the constitutional qualifications to hold the offices they are seeking. However, some legal decisions during the past three years have suggested that elections officials cannot keep presidential or vice-presidential candidates off the ballot because of constitutional qualifications. For example, in 2010, the California State Court of Appeals said the Secretary of State “has no discretion for the general election ballot…With respect to general elections, section 6901 directs that the Secretary of State must (must is in italics) place on the ballot the names of the several political parties’ candidates.” This decision is Keyes v Bowen, and dealt with President Obama’s qualifications. Alan Keyes, who had charged that Obama did not meet the constitutional qualifications, had then appealed this decision to the State Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, but both courts refused to hear the appeal, so the Court of Appeals decision stands.
