Thread: Members of the Electoral College Take an Oath to Uphold the

Members of the Electoral College Take an Oath to Uphold the Constitution
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CAN STATE LEGISLATURES ENFORCE IT?

by Paul Hollrah, ©2011

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution defines the duties of the Electoral College

(Oct. 28, 2011) — As a two-time member of the Electoral College, I am aware that the vast majority of electors totally misunderstand their duties and responsibilities. Most are convinced that their only duty is to ratify the selections made at their party’s national nominating convention. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Writing in the Federalist Papers, in defense of the proposed Electoral College, Alexander Hamilton expressed an overriding concern of the times. He wrote: “These most deadly adversaries of republican government (cabal, intrigue, etc.) might actually have expected to make their approach from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this than by raising a creature of their own (a “Manchurian candidate?â€

Every party nominee for Presidential Elector shall subscribe to an oath, stating that said nominee, if elected, will cast his or her ballot for the persons nominated for the offices of President and Vice President by the national convention of his or her party, and that said nominee, if elected, will cast his or her ballot only for candidates who are natural born citizens of the United States and who have at no time in their lives been citizens or dual citizens of any foreign nation...

How can an elector fulfill an oath to vote for the party nominee and to vote for only a natural born citizen,
if the national convention nominates a candidate who is not a natural born citizen?

And from what law or legal text did they derive the clause, "at no time in their lives been citizens or dual citizens of any foreign nation"? Certainly not from any definition of nbC that I have seen. Such a clause would exclude every national hero who has ever been involuntarily exiled from his or her homeland, only to return and lead the country.
A natural born Citizen is

• a citizen
  born in the country
  of parents who are citizens.

The extra verbiage is not inherent in the nbC concept. A person can become a citizen of, say, Indonesia, and then return to the U.S. without ever, officially and to the knowledge of the U.S. Dept. of State, renouncing U.S. citizenship. Such a person is no less

• a citizen
  born in the country
  of parents who are citizens,

for having temporarily assumed dual citizenship in a foreign nation.

Your meaning may vary, but

• a citizen
  born in the country
  of parents who are citizens

makes no mention of continuity of citizenship or absence of naturalization, only current citizenship status and no other loyalty at birth. Or at least that's how I read plain English. It would take a Constitutional scholar or a lawyer to make it mean anything else.