NC State Board of Elections filing says it can disqualify Madison Cawthorn if he helped 'insurrection'

In a new motion filed on Tuesday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections asserted that it has the power to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) from running for office if he aided the insurrection at the United States Capitol building.

Via Slate's Mark Joseph Stern, NC State Board of Elections Chairman Damon Circosta argued in the filing that the board's power to disqualify candidates within the state is constitutionally protected.

"In policing candidate qualifications pursuant to its constitutionally delegated election duties, however, the State does not run afoul of Article I, Section 5," the motion reads. "The State does not judge the qualifications of the elected members of the U.S. House of Representative. It polices candidate qualifications prior to the elections.... states have long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges. The State has the same authority to police which candidates should or should not be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment."

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The filing then goes on to directly quote the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that Americans are disqualified from holding public office if they "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States government], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Read the whole filing here (PDF).

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