Today, Vermont Republican Party Chairman Paul Dame issued the following statement:
Whether a candidate is qualified to serve for office is not a new issue in Vermont. In previous elections, two Democrats had questions about their eligibility to serve for office. During that time, both the Secretary of State’s office and the Attorney General’s office emphasized that they do not have the authority to make judgments as to the qualifications of candidates.
According to a VTDigger article, the Secretary of State’s office was quoted in an email saying, ‘[O]ur office does not have the authority to analyze and determine the eligibility of any candidate to hold office.’
In the same article, the current Attorney General, and then Deputy Attorney General, Charity Clark, said, ‘[I]t is not the role of the Attorney General to make decisions on whether a prospective candidate is qualified’ (Source: VTDigger Article).
In both of these cases, Democrats holding the office of Attorney General and Secretary of State washed their hands of responsibility in determining whether or not a Democrat was qualified to run. It would be very alarming if they were to suddenly change their opinion now that it is a Republican whose qualifications are being questioned. I strongly encourage both offices to once again renew their commitment to the view that neither office believes it is their role or in their authority to pre-emptively remove a candidate from the ballot.
Regarding qualifications under the 14th amendment, the plain text of the amendment clearly indicates that any disqualifying acts have the ability to be overturned by a vote of the House and Senate. This strongly suggests that it is the role of the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate to determine the qualifications of federal office holders, and not the role of individual state election officials. Removing a candidate from the ballot before the election would prevent the Congress from excercising their authority to address the disqualification as stated in the amendment.
These attempts are yet another example of the lengths to which Democrats will go to restrict and constrain voters in order to achieve a desired outcome. While some Democrats are working to keep a Republican candidate off the ballot, the DNC’s internal process is also trying to disenfranchise Democrats who plan to vote in their party’s primary in states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Robert Kennedy recently stated that currently proposed rules would punish him for campaigning in traditional early states like Iowa and New Hampshire by stripping him of any delegates there. When this is compounded by the already lopsided process the DNC uses with “super-delegates” to protect the Democrat Establishment, they are making it very difficult to choose their nominee in a Democratic way.