• ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    6 months ago

    The U.S. Constitution sets out three eligibility requirements for the presidency:

    1. The person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States

    2. At least 35 years old

    3. A resident of the United States for at least 14 years.

    There are no restrictions regarding criminal records.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      6 months ago

      which is actually good, because otherwise they could convict you for the pettiest shit or simply invent a law to convict you over, thus barring you from presidency when you haven’t done anything that people dislike.

      the problem now is that there’s a large group of people who don’t consider “being convicted of fraud” as a reason to stop voting for trump, and in fact will mos likely NEVER find any reason to stop voting for him or whoever the republicans put forward.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      6 months ago

      As a convicted felon and resident of Florida, though…he shouldn’t be allowed to vote. How could you rub for an office you can’t vote for?

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          I don’t disagree, but thems the ropes.

          Wouldn’t it be fucking great if he tries to go and vote live on OAN or some shit, and some smug poll worker gets to tell him he can’t vote because he’s a convicted felon.

          Oh man. That’d be better than winning the lottery.

      • Drusas@kbin.run
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Florida follows the voter laws of the state the felony was tried in. New York allows felons to vote.

    • i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      6 months ago

      “But why isn’t there a restriction on criminal convictions for being president?”

      A: before now, nobody thought we needed to explicitly write them.

      We live in insane times.

      • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        6 months ago

        No, the real answer is if criminal convictions barred you from office, it could be used as a political tool by corrupt politicians to prevent their opponents from running.

      • HighElfMage@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        6 months ago

        It’s also a safeguard against the reigning power using bogus prosecutions against their opposition, like we see in many authoritarian states.