Ken Bennett

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett is no longer sure that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

“I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was. But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”

Isn’t that cute? “I’m not a birther,” but I hope the President is legal. I bet you do.

Bennett has been convinced by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigation into Obama’s birth certificate that there are unanswered questions. He has now engaged Hawaiian officials in an eight-week process to find “a verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate.”

Hawaii keeps birth certificates private so the official of another state inquiring about it creates some problems for Hawaiian officials. Bennett and those officials have engaged in a lot of back and forth regarding information, jurisdiction and the like. It would appear that the Hawaiian officials could resolve this in quicker time than eight weeks, but it also makes sense that Bennett could figure out the truth from the ample evidence out there that Obama was born in Hawaii.

If Bennett is looking for verification beyond a certified copy, then he only needs to look here and here. At those links, directors of the Hawaii State Department of Health, Chiyome Fukino and Loretta Fuddy, appointees by Republican and Democratic governors, announced that they had seen the original birth certificates in their files and they are valid.

What more verification does someone want? Apparently news reports aren’t good enough for Bennett. He wants a personal email.

The only way Obama’s birth certificate could be fake is through bipartisan effort by the state of Hawaii to keep it under wraps. That isn’t going to happen because Hawaiian Republicans have no desire to help Barack Obama.

Bennett said that if he cannot get the proper information from Hawaii, then he might keep Obama off the ballot or request certified birth certificates from all the candidates. If that is what he needs to do then he should ask for certified birth certificates for all the presidential candidates. He should also ask for the same thing for everyone who is running for office in Arizona, which is not quite what they are doing now.

Bennett explained the process to vet other candidates for the ballot, but does not mention that the law requires them to be a citizen. He does state that being a registered voter is necessary. To be a registered voter requires citizenship and Arizona residency. Proof of citizenship must be provided for first time registrants in Arizona, but a driver’s license will suffice. However, a driver’s license is attainable without requiring residency in Arizona.

To seek information only for Obama is to conduct an arbitrary and political investigation that raises serious questions about Bennett’s capabilities to operate the Secretary of State office properly.

By the way, Bennett has hopes of being governor after Jan Brewer’s term is term limited out in two years.