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If documents someday prove Barack Obama is not eligible to be president under the U.S. Constitution, none of the 538 Electoral College members who vote him into office Monday will be able to claim ignorance.
That's after 3,653 citizens had enough concern over the allegations, they participated in a WND effort to deliver letters to every elector, urging them to investigate.
The campaign followed an earlier campaign among WND readers that sent more than 60,000 letters by overnight delivery to the U.S. Supreme Court when a case contesting Obama's eligibility for the Oval Office was pending.
The latest letters were sent FedEx to all 538 members of the Electoral College.
As WND has reported, serious questions remain over whether Obama is "a natural born citizen," as specified in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. While he claims to have been born in Hawaii in 1961, two Obama family members have told WND they were present at his birth in Mombasa, Kenya.
Further, Obama has steadfastly refused to release publicly his full birth certificate that would identify the hospital of his birth, the attending physician and other details. Instead, the campaign posted a document purporting to be a birth certificate devoid of these details.
Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WND, explained the significance of the letters to electors.
"If there is any doubt, electors have a sworn duty to find out. And, no matter what you hear from my colleagues in the press, elected officials who chose not to investigate this matter and not to insist that safeguards and checks were in place on a matter so urgent and fundamental, there is doubt – grave doubt.
"In fact, unless we're going to live under an honor system in the future, one that relies solely on what a candidate says about his own eligibility, there is no reason to believe Obama is. There is simply no valid evidence to prove it, and there is plenty to raise doubts," he wrote in a commentary on the program.
That "honor system" apparently is exactly what some electors want. One Colorado elector who told the Aspen Times she spends some of her time "teaching Marxist theory at a university," Camilla Auger, said she was upset that anyone would raise concerns about Obama.
Auger will vote for Obama Monday along with Colorado electors Margaret Atencio of Denver, Polly Baca of Denver, Ann Knollman of Arvada, Terry Phillips of Louisville, Pam Shaddock of Greeley, Don Strickland of Centennial, Jennifer Trujillo-Sanchez of Colorado Springs and Wellington Webb of Denver.
She ridiculed those with concerns about Obama's eligibility.
"I took them seriously enough that I was concerned that there are that many nutty people in the country making depressing, absurd allegations," she told the Denver Post. "There are so many problems in the country right now, we need to work together."
The Post itself, in fact, claimed the "allegations have been repeatedly debunked by the Obama campaign and news outlets."
The Times report said Auger has been a social sciences professor and vice president of an oil company, Tosco Corp.
"I think I was probably the only person in country to be executive vice president of an oil company and teaching Marxist theory at a university," she told the Times.
Others, however, have another view, and columnist Randall Hoven of AmericanThinker.com is one.
"Unfortunately, the facts are not clear. Multiple witnesses say Obama was born outside the U.S., that his father was not a U.S. citizen and his mother was a minor. If those are the facts, he was not 'natural born' per the laws in place at the time. Other cases have advanced different arguments challenging Obama's eligibility under the natural born citizen clause," he wrote.
More than a dozen cases have been brought into courtrooms around the country over Obama's eligibility, many of which have been dismissed summarily. However, three already have reached the U.S. Supreme Court and others still remain in the pipeline that could lead there.
The Supreme Court has declined to act in one case, which alleged Obama held dual citizenship because of a father who was a British subject, and is being asked to rule on a motion in a second case. A third case, scheduled for conference among the justices, also raises questions about Obama's lineage, citizenship and eligibility, because of his British-subject father and a mother who was a minor.
Last month WND reported how the situation could create a "constitutional crisis." The concerns were raised in a lawsuit in California, with lead plaintiff former presidential candidate Alan Keyes asking state officials to prevent Electoral College members from voting for Obama until they investigated his eligibility in the case being handled by the United States Justice Foundation.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi went to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The biggest question was why, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, Obama hasn't simply ordered it made available to settle the rumors.
The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?
Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. There have been other allegations that Obama actually was born in Kenya during a time when his father was a British subject.
The California case for which Keyes is a plaintiff states: "Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the office of president of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the president of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal."
Several of the online "fact" websites have stated Obama's documentation proves his citizenship and eligibility, some even citing sources within the Obama campaign staff.
"Yes, there was a birth announcement in the Honolulu newspaper at the time. Yes, the state of Hawaii said his birth certificate has been verified. Yes, we've seen Obama's birth certificate and it says he was born in Honolulu," Hoven writes.
But, he said, "Each of these claims falls apart upon the slightest examination."
A birth announcement published in a newspaper, for example, "means nothing."
"The announcement is not exactly informative. It says 'Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy, son. Aug 4.' That's it. It ran on page B-6 of the August 13, 1961 edition of 'The Sunday Advertiser.' It is not an official document of any kind and makes no claim of the location of his birth in any case. It announces a birth, period," Hoven writes.
Then there's the issue of the affirmation by the state of Hawaii regarding Obama's birth certificate.
"The actual quote from the Department of Health director is: 'I as Director of Health for the State of Hawaii, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures,'" Hoven said.
"All they did was verify that Obama's original birth certificate is on record. But that doesn't tell us what we need to know. What we need to know is where he was born," he said.
"The state of Hawaii did not say what was on the certificate and it won't release a copy out of privacy considerations. The state of Hawaii simply verified that Obama has a birth certificate on record; it did not verify that he was born in Hawaii," Hoven said.
Another point is Hawaii's provision, he said, that provides "certificates" for children born outside Hawaii.
The online image of a "certification of live birth" posted by Obama's FightTheSmears.com website, also, falls into that category, leaving many questions.
"Most importantly … this is not Obama's original birth certificate (the 'long form') and thus does not tell us what we need to know. Even if totally genuine, it is not the document necessary to prove he was born in Hawaii," Hoven wrote.
He continued, "In this case, the Constitution is very clear. Article II, Section 1 states, 'no person except a natural born citizen ... shall be eligible to the office of president.' No fuzz there. No need to look into penumbras and emanations. If a guy ain't natural born, he can't be president."
GOP presidential candidate John McCain during the campaign responded when his eligibility was questioned, due to the fact he was born to two U.S. citizens outside the boundaries of the 50 states.
A petition drive also has collected more than 175,000 signatures – so far – from people who want to know the truth.
Auger told the Times she recognizes the importance of the Electoral College.
"You would say that it's a ceremonial role except for the fact that, as we know, we have presidents who have been elected by the Electoral College and not by the popular vote," Auger told the newspaper.
The report said she was careful to note that should something, "like a scandal," happen to Obama before the Electoral College vote, they technically could elect someone else.
Farah also launched a petition drive on WND three weeks ago that calls on all controlling legal authorities to ensure the Constitution is followed on the question of eligibility and for full public disclosure of the facts of Obama's birthplace and parentage. More than 175,000 people have signed on to the petition in that time.
Obama has claimed in his autobiography and elsewhere he was born in Hawaii in 1961 to parents Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan national, and Stanley Ann Dunham, a minor. But details about which hospital handled the birth and other specifics provided on the complete birth certificate have been withheld by Obama.
WND dispatched private detectives to every hospital in Hawaii to see if there were any records of the birth of the first black man elected president. But, as yet, no hospital is claiming that distinction.
The letter told electors: "As is evident not only from lawsuits, but from news stories and the actions of millions of Americans signing petitions, this constitutional issue has not yet been addressed, even at this late hour.
"Unfortunately, there isn't enough time for our slow-moving legal process to deal with this before the Electoral College meets next week. Only you, our Electors, have the power and responsibility – and the obligation under the Constitution – to use your authority to establish, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. qualifies for the office under that standard.
"There is grave and widespread concern throughout the American public that this constitutional requirement is being overlooked and enforcement neglected by state and federal election authorities. There should be no doubt whatsoever that America's next president was truly born in the United States.
"Remember, if the Constitution doesn't mean precisely what it says, then America is no longer a nation under the rule of law. And a nation no longer under the rule of law is, by definition, under the rule of men."
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