Democrats may miss a deadline to get President Biden on the general election ballot in Ohio, according to the state\u2019s election management office.<\/p>\n
In a letter seen by The Washington Post, the Ohio secretary of state\u2019s office told Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters that the Democratic National Committee\u2019s nominating convention is scheduled too late for Biden to make the Ohio ballot because a state law requires nominees to be certified at least 90 days before the general election.<\/p>\n
The letter, citing Ohio\u2019s presidential ballot laws, said the deadline to certify a presidential candidate in Ohio is 90 days before the general election. The election is Nov. 5 this year, putting the Ohio deadline at Aug. 7 \u2014 but the Democratic National Convention, which is expected to nominate Biden for a rematch against Donald Trump, isn\u2019t scheduled to convene until Aug. 19.<\/p>\n
The letter from Paul Disantis, chief legal counsel for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), asked Democratic state legislative leaders for clarification to assure the party\u2019s \u201ctimely compliance with Ohio law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Kindel, a spokesperson for LaRose, shared the letter with The Post but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n
Members of the Ohio Democratic Party who were copied in the letter \u2014 Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio \u2014 did not respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment Sunday morning, but the Biden campaign said the president would appear on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re monitoring the situation in Ohio and we\u2019re confident that Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,\u201d Josh Marcus-Blank, a Biden-Harris 2024 campaign spokesperson, told The Post in an email.<\/p>\n
LaRose\u2019s office suggested that either the Democratic National Committee move up its nominating convention to meet the Aug. 7 deadline or that the Ohio General Assembly create an exception to the law for the Democrats\u2019 nominee.<\/p>\n
Ohio voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.<\/p>\n
David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, said he expects the Republican nominee to win Ohio again this fall, even if Biden is on the ballot. But if Biden were omitted, Niven said, fewer Democrats would vote, hindering the party\u2019s candidates for Senate and House seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this were to actually occur and President Biden were held off the ballot, it would be devastating to the general sort of faith in democracy,\u201d Niven said.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Ohio\u2019s law has created scheduling conflicts. In 2020, the Democratic and Republican parties scheduled their conventions for after Ohio\u2019s deadline. Knowing this, state lawmakers made a one-time change to reduce the deadline from 90 days before the election to 60, Niven said.<\/p>\n
But Niven said that decision benefited both parties. In Ohio, where the Republican Party controls both legislative chambers and the governor\u2019s mansion, Niven said he\u2019s unsure whether Republicans will want to implement another exception.<\/p>\n
If the legislature doesn\u2019t make an exception, he said, the Democratic Party may have to name Biden its nominee before the convention or list Biden on the ballot as a third-party candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy assumption is that, at least in this moment, democracy will win out,\u201d Niven said. \u201cBut because this is Ohio, it won\u2019t be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be surprising for a Democratic or Republican nominee not to appear on the general election ballot of all 50 states, but in this year\u2019s Democratic primaries, Biden was not on the ballot in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
Democrats revamped their primary schedule for 2024 to make South Carolina the first contest, but New Hampshire \u2014 where a state law requires that its primaries are the first in the nation \u2014 did not push its Democratic primary in response. The national party urged candidates not to participate, and Biden opted not to put his name on the ballot, but he won as a write-in candidate anyway.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Trump almost missed appearing on the general election ballot in Minnesota because of a miscue from that state\u2019s Republican Party. In December, Colorado disqualified Trump from the state\u2019s primary ballots, but the Supreme Court unanimously overruled that decision.<\/p>\n
Both major candidates have visited Ohio, which has 17 electoral votes, this year.<\/p>\n
Biden visited East Palestine, Ohio, in February, more than a year after a train derailment there caused environmental issues and political disputes.<\/p>\n
Last month, Trump held a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, where he said that some immigrants accused of crimes are \u201cnot people\u201d and that there would be a \u201cbloodbath for the country\u201d if he is not elected.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Democrats may miss a deadline to get President Biden on the general election ballot in Ohio, according to the state\u2019s election management office. In a letter seen by The Washington Post, the Ohio secretary of state\u2019s office told Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters that the Democratic National Committee\u2019s nominating convention is scheduled too late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}