Pennsylvania

Metcalfe Authors Legislation Requiring Presidential Candidates to Prove United States Citizenship

By Guest Column (Bio and Archives)  Saturday, November 1, 2008 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

HARRISBURG—Pennsylvania State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) today announced that he has authored legislation to require all candidates for the President of the United States to officially submit documentation proving that they are in fact a United States citizen.

“It has often been said that a well-informed electorate taught to know and prize their God-given rights cannot be enslaved,” said Metcalfe.  “As a veteran and an elected official who takes an oath of office, just like every past and future President of the United States, to uphold and defend the Constitutional rights of the citizens I represent, it is beyond perplexing and greatly troubling that a political candidate can ascend to the White House without providing sufficient documentation verifying his or her place of birth or American citizenship.  This legislation is intended to send the message that even those candidates who are running for our nation’s highest office are not above the law.” 

Specifically, Metcalfe’s soon-to-be-introduced legislation (House Bill 2837) would amend Section 910 of the Pennsylvania Election Code regarding the submission of candidate affidavits with the following underlined provisions:

1.    “Each candidate for any State, county, city, borough, incorporated town, township, ward, school district, poor district, election district, party   office, party delegate or alternate, or for the office of President of the United States, United States Senator or Representative in Congress shall file with his nomination petition his affidavit stating…”

2.    “Each candidate who submits an affidavit under this section shall append to the affidavit documentation that provides proof of citizenship, proof of age, and proof that the candidate meets the applicable residency requirements for the office sought.”

No stranger to the arena of election code reform, earlier this year Metcalfe again introduced the Pennsylvania Voter Identification Protection Act (House Bill 2519) to require all voters to present either a voter identification card issued by the county registration commission or valid form of photo identification at polling places before voting in order to reduce instances of voter fraud.

        In late April, the United States Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s law requiring voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls.  To date, more than two dozen states, including Pennsylvania, under which current law requires mandatory photo ID for first-time voters only, require some form of voter identification at the polls. 

        “‘Trust but verify,’ was a phrase Ronald Reagan frequently used during the Cold War to characterize his overall negotiating strategy with the Soviet Union,” said Metcalfe.  “Final passage of this legislation will provide additional levels of both trust and verification that anyone seeking elected office in Pennsylvania is just as much an American citizen as the voters supporting their candidacy.  With the recession, budget deficits, global terrorism and the very real threats of socialized health care and wealth redistribution looming on the horizon, requiring all potential Presidential candidates to submit valid proof of citizenship documentation in exchange for statewide ballot access is a fundamental and long-overdue check and balance that must be implemented to further ensure that the Oval Office is never occupied by anyone other than an natural born American citizen.”