Ohio officials rejected a plan by Democrats to get President Joe Biden on the ballot in November after the party scheduled its convention after a state election deadline.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned Ohio Democrats earlier this month that Biden risks missing the Nov. 5 vote. State law requires officials to certify the ballot 90 days before the election – which is on August 7 this year – but the president will not be officially nominated until the Democratic National Convention on August 19.
In a letter to LaRose’s office obtained by the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, attorney Don McTigue said the Democratic Party would tentatively certify Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris before the Aug. 7 deadline. McTigue noted that Biden had already secured enough delegates for the Democratic nomination after facing no significant primary challenge.
Biden easily won the presidential primaries in Ohio with 87% of the vote.
“If President Biden and Vice President Harris are not listed on the ballot as Democratic Party candidates, their supporters in Ohio will be deprived of the opportunity to associate with their preferred candidate,” McTigue wrote.
But Attorney General Dave Yost’s office says preliminary approval won’t work, and LaRose also can’t unilaterally change election deadlines.
“Instead, the law mandates the Democratic Party to actually certify its presidential and vice presidential candidates on or before August 7, 2024,” Julie M. Pfeiffer, an attorney on Yost’s staff, told legal counsel LaRose. “No alternative process is permitted.”
Ohio leaves Biden behind, Democrats are in trouble
Pfeiffer’s letter appears to give Democrats two options: rely on the legislature, or file a lawsuit.
Lawmakers could approve an exception to the 90-day deadline before May 9, as they did in 2020 when both parties scheduled their conventions late. But the chances of that happening are slim: Top Democrats said they are deferring to the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and Republican leaders are unlikely to lend a helping hand.
“I think it’s a Democratic problem,” Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, told reporters last week. “There should be a democratic solution. That was not suggested to me.”
Ohio isn’t the only state with election deadlines before the convention. Alabama and Washington are in the same boat, although Washington’s secretary of state — a Democrat — will accept a preliminary explanation, the Seattle Times reported. Oklahoma, Illinois, Washington and Montana did the same with both parties in 2020.
McTigue and a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign declined to answer questions about possible next steps.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” a Biden campaign official said. “State officials have the ability to grant preliminary certification of ballot access prior to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions.”
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: Ohio rejects Democrats’ solution to get Joe Biden on the November ballot
