Secretary of State Ken Bennett will not verify the birth records of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, at least not now — and possibly not ever — despite an earlier public commitment to do so.
Bennett acknowledged Thursday he has received requests from Arizona residents to perform the same kind of verification through Michigan about Romney’s birth certificate as he did through Hawaii for Barack Obama. And he said that he had, in fact, agreed to make such a check if he got a request.
But Bennett is now saying he needs something else: An allegation by an Arizona law enforcement agency that there is a question about the veracity of a candidate’s claimed birth certificate.
He said that was always a precondition of looking into Romney or anyone else. He just never disclosed that.
There has been only one such allegation, the one questioning Obama’s birth certificate by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. And Bennett said since there are no others, he feels no need to dig any further into any of Romney’s documents.
Last month, Bennett said he had received many requests to verify that Obama is a “natural born citizen” and constitutionally qualified to hold the nation’s highest office. He said he would not demand that Hawaii produce the actual birth certificate but instead would rely on a provision in that state’s law which allows an official in any other state to seek certification that a specific document does, in fact, exist.
Bennett, the state’s chief election official, said at the time he was not singling out the Democratic president for special treatment but simply responding to a constituent request. And he specifically said he would do the same thing “if somebody asked me to verify the Libertarian candidate or Mitt Romney or whoever it might end up being.”
On Thursday, Bennett said nothing has changed. He said that requirement for a law enforcement investigation to raise the issue was always a condition — albeit unstated — along with constituent requests, for seeking more information.
“They were asking because a law enforcement agency in the largest county in the state had some findings saying that they had probable cause that the birth certificate was a forgery,” he said.
And Bennett, who supports Romney’s bid to oust Obama, also said he sees the requests to check the Republican’s birth records as nothing more than politics.
“I think the only reason that people are asking about Romney’s (birth certificate) is because they’re mad that I asked about the president’s,” he said.
In March, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio charged that the birth certificate the White House posted on its web site is a fraud. He said a forensic examination of the electronic document proves that it was not simply scanned into a file but actually put together in several pieces.
Romney released a copy of his own birth certificate on Wednesday.
But Arpaio told Capitol Media Services he has had no requests to do a similar examination. And the sheriff said even if such requests were to materialize, he doubts he would take a closer look at what Romney produced.
“Am I supposed to check everybody’s birth certificate running for office?” he said.
“The reason we did this one is it’s been a controversial situation for a long, long time,” Arpaio explained, saying there were reasons to believe, even before the investigation, that Obama’s birth certificate was “suspect.”
“I’m not suspect over this one,” he said of Romney’s released document.
Bennett’s request that Hawaii verify it has Obama’s birth certificate has gained national attention, to the point where a liberal group started a tongue-in-cheeck campaign to get people to ask the secretary of state to determine if Romney is a unicorn.
“There has never been a conclusive DNA test proving that Mitt Romney is not a unicorn,” the LeftAction web site proclaims. “We have never seen him without his hair — hair that could be covering up a horn.”
Organization spokesman John Hlinko claimed there have been more than 20,000 people who have signed an online request. He said these were not forwarded to Bennett because LeftAction did not want to crash his web site.
Gerry_C posted at 4:53 pm on Thu, May 31, 2012.
Seems odd that this requires a "law enforcement investigation" before the secretary of state can act in what is a civil matter.
Engaged Voter posted at 5:39 pm on Thu, May 31, 2012.
Did anyone really expect one of Romney's own toadies (Bennett) would do anything to disparage him?
We need to rid our state of this JOKE of a "secretary".
silverbull8 posted at 5:45 pm on Thu, May 31, 2012.
Birth Matrix http://goo.gl/ek0oP
native born http://goo.gl/ntjy1
Obama http://goo.gl/XifdK
Mitt Romney http://goo.gl/99z0T
Act XXII Feb 10, 1855 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdF_O_R17kY
Leon Ceniceros posted at 1:00 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
Why bother checking? Just look at Romney and hear him speak = 100% American through and through.
Romney as never given an interview claiming that the Muslim "Call to Prayer" was the most beautiful words every written and then proceeded to say the call in ..."PERFECT ARABIC".
IF THAT DOESN'T SCREAM......."MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE"....I DON'T KNOW WHAT DOES.......[wink]
JMJ posted at 4:55 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
Oh, face it. As long as Romney was born on this planet, Bennett is satisfied that Romney is a worthy candidate.
wdgnas posted at 6:16 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
i for one would like to mitt romney's marriage certificate, and not a photocopy of it either.
retired03 posted at 7:40 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
this political petty, chilish nonsense is not even funny anymore. First, why the heck is a state agency investigating, or contemplating investigating anyones birth certificte on the federal level? Doesn't the state have it's own problems, that they can't take care of by the way? Then you have king joe who is quickly losing it as he gets older trying to sell snake oil to the citizens of AZ and the nation that he had no agenda what so ever in staging his "investigation" into obama's birth certificate, again wasting tax dollars and resources of the people of Maricopa County.
Stop the nonsense and get down to the real issues like trying to right the ship called the United States.
.... and leon, glad to see you continue to fall off the deep end.
Rational Human posted at 7:59 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
Have the progressive socialists that only yesterday were screaming about how stupid birthers are begun demanding Romney's birth certificate? Hypocrites to the end.
crager posted at 8:33 am on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
rational human, how exactly is asking for equal treatment for both candidates hypocritical?
Engaged Voter posted at 2:43 pm on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
"Why bother checking? Just look at Romney and hear him speak = 100% American through and through."
So, according to Leon, the Prime Minister of Canada is "100% American through and through"
What a screwball.
Rational Human posted at 5:13 pm on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
LOL, well the hypocrisy is obvious, and I explained why already, but regardless of this Romney has already released his birth certificate to the press. Go ahead and demand what is already been given to the press. If it's a forgery they should be able to tell us. As leftist as the MSM is I'm sure they will scrutinize it thoroughly. LOL so how am I a thief Voter? I must have missed that one.
In_God_We_Trust posted at 10:07 pm on Fri, Jun 1, 2012.
After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar, but never worked as an attorney.
As a venture-capitalist, Romney's first major business deal involved investing in a start-up office supply company with one store in Massachusetts that sold office supplies. That company, called Staples, now has over 2,000 stores and employs over 90,000 people.
Romney or his company Bain Capital (using what became known as the "Bain Way") would go on to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply, and many others.
Got your calculators handy? Let's recap.
Volunteer campaign worker for his dad's gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
Unpaid intern in Governor's office 8 years.
Mormon missionary in Paris 2 years.
Unpaid bishop and stake president for his church 10 years. No salary as president of the Olympics 3 years.
No salary as MA governor 4 years.
That's a grand total of 28 years of unpaid service to his country, his community and his church. Why? Because that's the kind of man Mitt Romney is.
And you know what? He’ll show you his:
Un-doctored Birth Certificate!
College transcripts!
Law degree!
Isn’t it time for a REAL CHANGE?
A brighter HOPE for America.
Forget downing the opposition raise up the new president-to-be the winner in November, 2012!
Mitt Romney – American by birth!