"Green Party Watch recently said that the U.S. Constitution forbids a party from running a candidate for president and a candidate for vice-president who are both from the same state. This is a common misconception.
The 12th Amendment says that a presidential elector can’t vote for someone for president and someone else for vice-president, if both candidates are from that elector’s home state. So, the only barrier is that the electors from one particular state can’t vote for such a team. Electors in the other 49 states are free to vote for a team in which both members are from the same state.
Also, the ban only applies to residence in December of the presidential election, the month when the electors vote. So if a minor party did carry the state in which both the president and vice-president live, the electors are still free to vote for that team if either the presidential candidate, or the vice-presidential candidate, moves out of that state before the mid-December date when the electors vote.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney both lived in Texas when they were nominated in 2000, but Cheney switched his residence to Wyoming, so that the Bush-Cheney ticket was able to receive the votes of the Texas electors.
In the past, the Socialist Workers Party frequently nominated two New Yorkers, one for president and one for vice-president. The party’s national office has always been in New York and it was usually more convenient to the party to have both candidates living in New York. Challenges to the party’s ballot position in New York were made on the basis of residence, but the New York State Courts always upheld the SWP’s ballot position."
Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us 
No comments:
Post a Comment