Indiana

IN Election Law

While IN Election Law allows for a person to file an objection, the ruling in Ankeny v Daniels will serve as sufficient precedent in Indiana that President Obama indeed is a Natural Born Citizen. While Indiana may have looked to be one of the more promising states for a challenges, the lawsuit filed and lost may have ended any hopes here.

This is in response to the question in your email: “How does your state determine that a candidate is eligible to appear on the ballot?” In Indiana, state law governs this issue. In general, our office performs a non-discretionary function when receiving candidate filings. In other words, state law allows our office to reject a candidate filing in very limited circumstances. For example, we are required to reject a candidate’s filing if it is not tendered to our office by the statutory deadline. In addition, we must reject a filing that is not tendered on the most recent candidate form approved by the Indiana Election Commission. However, state law requires that we accept a candidate filing tendered in a timely manner and on the appropriate form.

Once filed, Indiana has an “administrative challenge procedure” that allows a registered voter to challenge the qualifications of a candidate. For example, this administrative challenge procedure would be the method to raise an issue as to whether a presidential candidate met the “natural born citizen” requirement contain in the U.S. Constitution.

In short, state law does not give our office the authority to investigate the qualification of a candidate in this regard. Instead, state law (specifically IC 3-8-1-2) requires that a registered voter of the election district (the state of Indiana for a presidential candidate) to file a timely sworn statement on state form CAN-1 before the Commission is permitted to exercise jurisdiction to consider the challenge to the candidate’s qualification. The Commission does not act in the role as the investigator of candidates with respect to this type of qualification issue. Instead, the Commission acts in the role of judge in considering candidate challenges brought to it. This is the way that the state legislature established the rules regarding challenges to a candidate’s qualifications.

A presidential candidate, like Barack Obama, could have been administratively challenged as a primary candidate if a registered voter in Indiana had filed a state form CAN-1 with our office by noon February 29, 2008, pursuant to IC 3-8-3-7, IC 3-8-2-18 and IC 3-8-1-2. When I say “administratively challenged” I mean, had a timely CAN-1 been filed by noon February 29 with our office, then the Indiana Election Commission, a bi-partisan administrative body, would have considered the challenge before the primary election. In fact, a registered voter in Indiana did file a CAN-1 before noon February 29 challenging the candidacy of John McCain. The challenge claimed that John McCain failed to submit the required signatures to obtain ballot access in the primary. In that case, the Commission voted 4-0 to deny the challenge and keep John McCain on the ballot. However, there was no challenge filed as to the qualifications of Barack Obama in Indiana.

At this point in time there is no administrative process in place that would permit a person to challenge a presidential candidate. As you know, the presidential electors have all now met and cast their votes and congress has now confirmed the results of the election. However, I am aware that there are several pending court cases that have challenged the qualifications of Barack Obama to assume and hold office as president. At this point if there is any remedy available to challenge the qualifications of Barack Obama it would be a judicial remedy. I offer no opinion as to whether there is a judicial remedy or whether there is any merit to the claims made by some that Barack Obama is not qualified to assume or hold office as president. However, if you are interested in the progress of these cases I would suggest that you monitor the progress of these cases in the print media or online.

Dale R. Simmons