President Barack Obama (Pic by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin S. O’Brien, via Wikimedia Commons)
A Broward County Democrat is asking state officials to remove Barack Obama’s name from the 2012 election ballot on the grounds that he has not documented that he is eligible for the office. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, the state Elections Canvassing Commission and Obama himself are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
According to the Leon County Clerk of Courts website, plaintiff Michael Voeltz is representing himself in the case, which was filed in February. But a story published on the right-wing blog World Net Daily suggests Voeltz is being helped by Larry Klayman, an attorney and the founder of Freedom Watch USA. It is unclear if Klayman is providing Voeltz with legal representation, and Klayman Hasn’t responded to our requests for comment.
The case was filed by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch USA on behalf of Democrat Michael Voeltz, “a registered member of the Democrat Party, voter, and taxpayer in Broward County, who was an eligible elector for the Florida Primary of Jan. 31, 2012.”
As part of his responsibilities, the lawsuit explains, Voeltz took “an oath to ‘protect and defend’ the U.S. Constitution.”
The complaint cites widely reported suspicions that Obama might not have been born in the United States and the fact that his father never was a U.S. citizen. It contends that because of those circumstances, Obama is not a “natural-born citizen” as the Constitution demands of the president.
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The Florida Election Code allows any voter or taxpayer to challenge any candidate who is ineligible for public office in the Leon County courts. If the secretary of state cannot confirm Obama’s eligibility, then Klayman is demanding the court grant an injunction preventing Obama’s name from appearing on the Florida General Election Ballot in 2012.
Klayman, a U.S. Senate candidate in Florida in 2004, has been quoted as saying that Obama’s “primary allegiances” are to “Muslim and foreign interests.”
According to the complaint, there is “credible evidence indicating that [Obama’s] electronically produced birth certificate is entirely fraudulent or otherwise altered. No physical, paper copy of the actual long-form birth certificate has been produced in order to definitively establish Barack Hussein Obama’s birth within the United States.”
The case is one of a slew to be filed across the country alleging that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States — a notion that has come to be known as the “Birther” theory.
Even elected officials have entertained “Birther” notions. During a recent town hall meeting, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, questioned the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate, telling constituents: “All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate. The question is: Is it legitimate? That’s where we stand now.”
