Illinois Board Of Elections: Former Canadian Ted Cruz Eligible To Be POTUS

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, waves during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP... Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, waves during the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) MORE LESS
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The Illinois Board of Elections on Monday ruled against two complaints charging that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) cannot run for president because he is not a “natural born citizen.”

The board ruled that Cruz “is a natural born citizen by virtue of being born in Canada to his mother who was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth as the candidate did not have to take any steps or go through a naturalization process at some point after his birth,” according to the board’s meeting minutes.

In response to the complaints filed to the board of elections, Cruz filed a motion to dismiss, according to the board’s meeting minutes. He argued that it was not within the election board’s scope to determine whether a candidate is eligible to run for president. The Illinois Board of Elections dismissed his motion, writing in the meeting minutes that determining Cruz’s eligibility is within the board’s “scope of inquiry.”

Cruz’s lawyers also filed a brief laying out the legal precedent for Cruz’s presidential eligibility. The Texas senator’s lawyers acknowledge that the Constitution doesn’t define the term, but argue in the brief that “every judicial decision and virtually every constitutional authority agree that a ‘natural born citizen’ is anyone who was a citizen at the moment they were ‘born’—as opposed to becoming a citizen through the naturalization process at some point after their birth.”

The brief cites British law and constitutional scholars, and it also notes that both Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who was born on an American base in Panama, and former Michigan Gov. George Romney, who was born in Mexico to American parents, were able to run for president.

Lawrence Joyce and William Graham both filed objections to Cruz’s eligibility with the Illinois Board of elections.

Joyce told the Huffington Post that he will not appeal the board’s decision because he lacks the resources to do so.

Two lawsuits — in Texas and Utah — challenging Cruz’s eligibility have also been filed recently.

The Excess of Democracy blog, which highlighted the Illinois Board of Elections’ ruling on Monday, has noted that the Ballot Law Commission in New Hampshire has also allowed Cruz to appear on the primary ballot despite a challenge to Cruz’s eligibility.

Read the memorandum filed by Cruz’s lawyers:

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