Gov. Brewer Vetoes AZ Birther Bill

BBC News reports:

The governor of Arizona has vetoed a bill requiring presidential candidates to prove US citizenship in order to get on the state's election ballot.

Republican Jan Brewer said the bill would have allowed officials to judge who is eligible to run for office.

A lingering "birther" conspiracy theory asserts US President Barack Obama was not born in the US and is thus ineligible to hold the office.

But the bill's Republican backers insisted it was not aimed at Mr Obama.

The Arizona legislature was the first to pass such a law.

It would have allowed the state's top election official, the secretary of state, to determine whether candidates met citizenship requirements to hold the office of president.

"I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," Ms Brewer said in a statement.

She was secretary of state until she became governor in 2009.

The US constitution requires the president be a "natural born citizen", a clause widely interpreted to mean born in the US or in some cases to US citizens abroad.

Mr Obama has released a certificate of live birthshowing he was born in the US state of Hawaii, where officials vouch for its authenticity.

But the "birthers" claim Mr Obama was born in Kenya, his father's place of birth, or perhaps in Indonesia, where he spent several years as a child.

The bill would have required national political parties to submit affidavits affirming their presidential candidates are "natural born" citizens and to provide a "long form birth certificate" listing the name of the hospital and the attending physician.

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