Does a candidate's FULL name have to be on the ballot ?

[SparkyMac]

In the General Election?

That may not prove to be very advantageous in Obama's case.

[uponit7771]

1. I think he better say his middle name and repeat it until it's dead and people get over it

[YOY]

2. Only to against the highly Republican "complete f***ing idiot vote"

n/t

[nxylas]

3. Yeah, cos at the moment, nobody knows about his middle name

It's such a closely-guarded secret.

:eyes:

[stillcool]

15. I think all Muslim all the time...

is the new strategy. Reverend Wright, and Rezko are taking a break.

[panader0]

4. Is there anyone out there who doesn't know Barack's middle name yet?

[MonkeyFunk]

5. probably depends on the state

but generally, no, the full name doesn't have to be used. Jimmy Carter ran as Jimmy Carter, not James Earl Carter.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Along with a picture of just how black he is.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. He's black?!?!

:wow:

[NorthCarolina]

7. Anyone who votes against, or holds animosity towards anyone

because of the name given them by their parents is not intelligent nor mature enough to be casting ballots in any public election.

[WeDidIt]

8. I've never seen a requirement for it

His name was Barack Obama on my Illinois ballot twice in 2004 and in teh primary this year.

[SparkyMac]

22. Back when Jimmy Carter ran for governor of Georgia

He had to use his complete name in GA. His full name was James Earl Carter. That was shortly after MLK had been murdered by James Earl Ray.

For obvious reason, he wanted to run as "Jimmy Carter". He could not do that because it was not his full legal name. Before the election - he had his name legally changed to "Jimmy Carter". And that's how it always read on ballots after that.

[SoonerPride]

9. No, but I'm sure we'll see some "misprinted" "Osama" ballots.

Just you wait.

[LTR]

10. No

I've never seen a middle name on a ballot.

I assume it's whatever name the candidate goes by. Jesse Ventura's name was on the Minnesota governor ballot as that in 1998, even though his real name as James Janos (though it may have been legally changed to his stage name by that point).

[EFerrari]

12. Or in Clinton's case, for that matter. n/t

[Kittycat]

13. Thank you for your "concern"

[babylonsister]

18. Ditto. nt

[Kali]

21. beat me to the reply

EGGSACKLY what I was going to write.

[redqueen]

26. Yup.

[NYDem Observer]

14. I somebody isn't going to vote for him

because of his middle name, they probably weren't going to vote for him anyway.

[Aloha Spirit]

16. Middle name should be on the ballot, along with all of their current prescriptions, cholesterol

level, blood pressure, driving record, and recent credit history.

[endarkenment]

24. recent blood test results, MRIs, sexual history

and every statement ever made by any minister of any religious institution the candidate ever attended.

Better yet, an audio tape of the collected wisdom of Lush, O'lielly, and Insanity on the merits of the candidates should be playing in your voting booth while your are voting. Heck just have False News monitors dual-purposed as DRE voting machines.

[Aloha Spirit]

25. Also, they should be subjected to an interrogation by the FBI to make sure they love their country.

[yardwork]

28. Also, no voter shall be given a ballot unless said voter is wearing a flag pin.

[chascarrillo]

17. Alerted.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. Here in New Jersey, it used to be just last names.

I don't know what it's going to be now that we have the electronic monstrosities, but in 2004 it was "KERRY & EDWARDS," "BUSH & CHENEY," "NADER & CAMEJO," and so on down the line.

[ShadowLiberal]

20. Unless they go by their middle name/initial (like George W Bush) I don't see why

Unless you go by your middle name in public I don't see the point of middle names on the ballot, people almost never go by them. Unless you have an election where you have two Joe Smith's on the ballot what's the point, people almost never use their middle names.

[endarkenment]

23. Thank you for your concern

and yet a new twist on how to bring up anti-muslim bullshit.

[sybylla]

27. In my state, the candidate gets to decide exactly how they want their name to appear

on the ballot. I'm guessing it's that way for most states.

[smalll]

29. Don't know about that, but I think a President has to use his FULL name when sworn in!

When sworn in, Jimmy Carter had to say, "I, James Earl Carter." Ronald Reagan never used his middle name on the campaign trail, but he also was sworn in as Ronald Wilson Reagan. The first Bush never used his two middle names (they come across kind of old school elitist), but he was sworn in as George Herbert Walker Bush. Bill Clinton? Sworn in as William Jefferson Clinton.

One other perhaps most telling example: as you may know, Harry S. Truman's middle initial didn't stand for anything: he had two close relatives with S-names (one was Shipp (or Shippe) the other was Solomon) so his parents gave him just the middle initial rather than favoring one or the other.

According to Wikipedia:

Truman's bare initial caused an unusual slip when he first became president and had to take the oath of office. At a meeting in the Cabinet Room, Chief Justice Harlan Stone began reading the oath by saying "I, Harry Shipp Truman, . . ." Truman responded: "I, Harry S. Truman, . . ."

What we can take from this is that the Chief Justice (or his clerks) had felt the need to research what Truman's middle initial stood for, and settled on Shipp, so that Truman would properly take the oath of office.

Now there is no direct requirement in the Constitution that a President must take the oath of office using his full name, but it seems to me there must be some law, regulation or perhaps Supreme Court rule that requires it. It is highly unlikely that the outgoing Bush administration will help Obama by changing this before January 20th (if Obama can somehow win in November.)

At the least, it seems that Barack Obama will have to be sworn in as Barack H. Obama, if not the full Barack Hussein Obama.