OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden is in a jam for the election because he may not be on the ballot in one of the most important states in the Electoral College, Ohio.
Officials in the state have said no to a plan by the Democrats to get around Ohio’s ballot deadline, which comes before the Democrat National Convention where Biden is to officially be named the Party’s nominee for president, The Epoch Times reported.
“It was recently reported that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned Ohio Democrats that state law stipulates the Aug. 7 deadline for certifying the Democrat party’s presidential nominee to the secretary of state’s office but that President Biden’s nomination wouldn’t be official until about a week later, and therefore both he and Vice President Kamala Harris risk not being able to appear on the November ballot,” the report said.
LaRose said the only way to fix it is for the Democrats to change their convention date or the Ohio State Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, to change the law to accommodate Democrats.
“I am left to conclude that the Democratic National Committee must either move up its nominating convention or the Ohio General Assembly must act by May 9, 2024 (90 days prior to a new law’s effective date) to create an exception to this statutory requirement,” Secretary of State’s spokesman Paul Disantis told the Party.
Donald McTigue, an attorney for the Democrats, presented a plan to LaRose’s office to bypass the state election law that would “provisionally” name Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominees and then giving an official confirmation by Aug. 25, which is three days after the end of the convention.
“Doing so here would allow the millions of Ohioans who support President Biden and Vice President Harris to exercise their fundamental constitutional right to meaningfully participate in the presidential election,” he said.
He said that it would be unconstitutional for the state to bar the president and vice president from the ballot.
But the Secretary of State’s attorney responded by saying that there is no way for him to change the law to accommodate the Democrats.
“The Secretary’s lack of authority to change the certification deadlines in R.C. 3505.10(B)(1) played out on two prior occasions, in 2012 and 2020, when the General Assembly passed legislation relaxing the deadline to accommodate both the Democratic Party’s and the Republican Party’s national convention schedules. On both of those prior occasions, the deadlines were revised through legislation, not by the Secretary of State. Just like the two prior occasions, there is no provision in Ohio’s Election Code that would permit the Secretary to provide the Democratic Party with an alternative process this time around,” LaRose’s office told McTigue.
“You assert that ‘applying the 3505.10(B)(1) deadline to potentially bar the sitting President and Vice President from appearing on the Ohio ballot would be plainly unconstitutional’ and that a ‘strict application’ of the law would substantially infringe the named presumptive nominees, their supporters, and the Democratic Party itself. What is the point of a deadline if it is not strictly applied? Additionally, does a political party not have any obligation to uphold the associational rights of its own candidates, supporters, and members by complying with a clear deadline that has governed Ohio elections now for nearly two decades, and one that in fact its own elected officials enacted?” the Secretary of State’s office said.
“Finally, let me reiterate that this office seeks to remedy this matter in a way that satisfies the long-established statutory requirements for presidential candidate ballot access through a nominating convention. Please contact me as soon as possible with any information that can assure this office of timely compliance with Ohio law,” LaRose’s office noted further.
