Kansas still deciding on Obama on ballot

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TOPEKA, Kan., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Kansas election officials refused Friday to guarantee President Barack Obama a place on the ballot, saying they need more information about his citizenship.

Brad Bryant, the Kansas election director, said the Objections Board has asked for a certified copy of the president's birth certificate, The New York Times reported.

The board had a hearing Thursday on an objection raised by Joe Montgomery of Manhattan, Kan. Montgomery argues that the U.S. Constitution's requirement that the president must be a "natural-born citizen" means both parents must be U.S. citizens and also suggests he doesn't have a valid birth certificate.

There is ample evidence Obama was born in Honolulu. His father was a student from Kenya who never became a U.S. citizen and eventually returned to his homeland.

The Obama campaign sent the board a letter saying that Montgomery's interpretation of the Constitution is at odds with a century of U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Bryant said that the board felt it needed more information because no representative of Obama appeared at the hearing. He said that was why it sought the birth certificate.

"We're hoping to obtain that over the weekend," Bryant said. "And then they will reconvene Monday in the morning to consider that document, put it in the record and then make a decision on whether the name of Barack Obama will be on the ballot."