Democrats will effectively choose President Joe Biden as their nominee after Ohio lawmakers scrambled to change a state deadline that violated the party’s convention.
The Democratic National Committee will hold a virtual roll call ahead of the Aug. 19 convention in Chicago and before Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline to certify the ballot, party officials told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau on Tuesday. The announcement came the same day the Ohio Legislature called a special session at the behest of Governor Mike DeWine to get Biden on the ballot.
A DNC committee will meet next week to give the virtual go-ahead, and all members will vote on the change sometime afterward. Democrats have not yet set a date for the roll call, which they also held virtually in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all fifty states, and Ohio Republicans agree,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison. “But when the time for action comes, they have failed to take action every time, so the Democrats will land this plane on their own. Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans cannot undermine our democracy through incompetence or partisan ploys and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”
The problem with Ohio’s vote surfaced in April when Secretary of State Frank LaRose told Democrats that the certification deadline was 12 days before the DNC. That left the party and Biden’s campaign with three options: change convention procedures, sue Ohio or let state lawmakers move the deadline, as they have done in previous elections.
Alabama and Washington faced the same problem and solved it. The Alabama legislature voted to change the deadline, while Washington’s secretary of state agreed to provisionally certify Biden. Democrats also sought preliminary certification in Ohio, but state officials rejected that idea.
The prospect of a legislative solution faded earlier this month when lawmakers deadlocked on a plan to change the certification date. While the Ohio House proposed a standalone Biden solution, Senate Republicans opted for separate legislation to ban foreign citizens from contributing to state and local voting issues. The House did not vote on either bill.
Democrats argue that the foreign money measure is a “poison pill” that will hamper citizen-initiated voting campaigns. Republican lawmakers saw it as a trade-off to help the DNC and Biden campaign solve a problem of their own making. It is already illegal for foreigners to give money to Ohio candidates or contribute to federal, state or local elections.
After inaction in the state House, a frustrated DeWine ordered lawmakers to return this week and tackle a fix for the Biden vote and foreign campaign spending. But Democrats chose to follow their own path in case lawmakers failed to reach an agreement.
“This petty partisanship is not only an unprecedented distraction, but it is also bound to fail,” said Justin Levitt, a former Biden White House adviser and law professor at Loyola Marymount University. “Both candidates will inevitably be on the ballot; the only real question is whether Ohio’s lawmakers and Secretary of State are ashamed for setting their constituents’ tax dollars on fire in the meantime.”
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations in Ohio.
This article originally appeared in The Columbus Dispatch: Democratic Party to virtually nominate Joe Biden to meet Ohio deadline
