A foreign-born candidate will be on the ballot for president in Massachusetts this November.
Independent Shiva Ayyadurai is one of six presidential candidates who will be on the ballot for the November 5, 2024, presidential election. However, conventional wisdom says Ayyadurai is constitutionally ineligible to be president because he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.
The 60-year-old Belmont resident was born in Bombay India, to Indian parents, moved to the United States at 7 years old, and became a naturalized citizen at 20 years old.
Here is what Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 says about eligibility to be president:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Ayyadurai is on the ballot in Massachusetts because he met the state’s requirements to make the ballot and no one, including political parties, filed an objection with the State Ballot Law Commission.
“No one in Massachusetts chose to challenge Shiva Ayyadurai’s candidacy, though the parties were aware that he filed nomination papers,” Debra O’Malley, a spokesman for Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin, told NewBostonPost via email. “Our state law requires only that the electors file 10,000 certified signatures of registered voters of the Commonwealth, and those nomination papers and the candidates are subject to challenge before the State Ballot Law Commission and/or a court.”
“The deadline to file an objection with the State Ballot Law Commission was August 30,” O’Malley added. “Lawsuits also could have been filed in state or federal court. At this point, the ballots are already in the process of being printed.”
However, in New Jersey, where the Democratic Party challenged Ayyadurai’s eligibility, he was removed from the ballot.
“[Ayyadurai] was not born in the United States, was not born to a United States citizen, and he freely admits that he immigrated to the United States and went through a naturalization process in 1983,” New Jersey administrative law judge William Cooper ruled last month. “Given the general consensus on the definition of a natural born citizen, respondent does not fall underneath the category, and thus cannot qualify for the office of president.”
Ayyadurai, who could not be reached for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday, has said he thinks that any U.S. citizen can be president — despite the requirement in the U.S. Constitution that one must be a natural-born citizen to serve as president.
“Two fundamental pillars make America what it is: Immigrants & Freedom,” Ayyadurai posted on X (Twitter) on July 1, 2024. “http://Shiva4President.com stands for – One America, One Citizenship- there cannot be TWO-CLASSES of citizens. ANY Citizen can run & be President. – Free America, No Censorship – The GOVT & Social Media collusion to destroy the First Amendment must be destroyed. I’ve led that effort.”
A frequent candidate for public office, Ayyadurai ran for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts as an independent in 2018 and unsuccessfully sought the Massachusetts Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in 2020.
Ayyadurai’s typically avoids discussing standard economic and social issues during his political campaigns. However, he opposes vaccines (calling vaccine mandates “rape”), genetically modified foods, and both Ukraine and Israel. He has expressed support for free speech and claimed widespread voter fraud in various elections, including the 2020 Republican primary where he lost 59.7 percent to 39.4 percent to Kevin O’Connor of Dover.
Though Ayyadurai is running against Trump for president, he claimed in 2017 that both former state representative Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman) and radio talk show host Howie Carr were a “fake Trumper.” Diehl and Carr are no longer friendly with each other, but both men have long been vocal supporters of the former president.
The other five presidential candidates on the ballot in the Bay State are: Democrat nominee Kamala Harris, Republican nominee Donald Trump, Green-Rainbow party nominee Jill Stein, Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver, and Claudia De la Cruz of Socialism and Liberation.
Harris is the overwhelming favorite to win the 11 electoral votes in Massachusetts. A Democrat has won every presidential election in Massachusetts since 1988.
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