Page:Qualifications for President and the “Natural Born” Citizenship Eligibility Requirement.pdf/43

 "The presumption always is, that a person chosen to an office is qualified to fill it, and it is never incumbent upon him to prove his eligibility. The certificate of election does not add to this presumption, but simply leaves it where the law places it, and he who denies the eligibility of a person who is certified to be elected, must take the burthen of proving that he is not eligible."

Despite the absence of formal administrative or legal requirements to produce a “birth certificate” for ballot placement of federal candidates, and despite the fact that under the long-standing principles of American jurisprudence, and U.S. democratic tradition, the clear burden of proof must be upon those who challenge a federal candidate’s eligibility, it may be noted that the only official documentation or record that had been publicly forwarded in the matter of President Obama’s eligibility at the time of the 2008 election was an official, certified copy of the record of live birth released by the Obama campaign in June of 2008, as an apparent effort by then-candidate Obama to address rumors and innuendos concerning both his middle name as well as the place of his birth. The copy of this certificate states on its face, as expressly certified by Hawaii health and vital records personnel, that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, in the City of Honolulu on the Island of Oahu, at 7:24 P.M. on August 4, 1961. Under Hawaii law, an officially certified copy of such health record is to be considered “for all purposes the same as the original,” and is “prima facie” evidence of the facts asserted.

Subsequent to that release in 2008, President Obama requested in writing from the State of Hawaii an exception to the public records laws and regulations of the State of Hawaii so that the Department of Health could release to the President a certified copy of his original, so-called “long form” certificate of live birth. The official certified copy was shown to reporters at a press conference in the White House, and a scanned copy of the document was posted for public Rh