Biden’s Bid to Appear on Ohio Ballot in Limbo as Officials Reject Democrat Plan

U.S. President Joe Biden waits to speak to supporters and volunteers at a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Pa., on April 18, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s effort to get on the general election ballot in Ohio remains in limbo as state officials have rejected a Democrat proposal to circumvent a looming certification deadline that falls before President Biden officially becomes the party’s presidential nominee.

According to correspondence between Ohio officials and Democratic Party representatives that was viewed by The Epoch Times, state officials have rejected a Democrat proposal to submit a “provisional certification” of President Biden’s nomination before an Aug. 7 deadline to register for the Ohio ballot and then later supply the formal certification documents once his nomination becomes official at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.

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 fix, according to Mr. LaRose, was either for Ohio lawmakers to pass an exception or for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to hold its nominating convention earlier.

“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,” Mr. LaRose’s legal counsel, Paul Disantis, wrote in the April 5 letter, according to ABC News.

‘No Alternative Process Is Permitted’

Follow-up correspondence to Mr. Disantis from attorney Donald McTigue, who is representing Democrats in the matter, proposed a pathway forward for certification of President Biden and Vice President Harris as the party’s nominees in line with Ohio laws by “provisionally” certifying the pair as the nominees before the Aug. 7 deadline and then providing an official confirmation by Aug. 25, three days after the convention ends.

“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,” Mr. McTigue wrote, adding that there is “no ambiguity” that President Biden would be the party’s nominee since he has already secured the requisite number of pledged delegates in the primaries.

Mr. McTigue said that applying the deadline to bar President Biden from the ballot would be “plainly unconstitutional” while insisting that the Ohio secretary of state has the authority to accept a provisional certification, which he described as a process that is anyway consistent with Ohio law because President Biden has the required number of delegates.

In an April 15 response letter to Mr. McTigue, the secretary of state said that there are no provisions in Ohio law that would allow him to “provide the Democratic Party with an alternative process” and said that he had consulted the matter with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who affirmed.

Mr. Yost’s office said in its own letter to Mr. McTigue that the Democrat plan is flawed.

“The Democratic Party’s notion of providing a ‘provisional certification’ by the statutory deadline simply is not provided for by law,” Mr. Yost’s office said in a letter to Mr. McTigue. “Instead, the law mandates the Democratic Party to actually certify its president and vice-president candidates on or before August 7, 2024. No alternative process is permitted.”

Neither the Biden campaign nor Mr. McTigue’s office responded to requests for comment.

Legislative Last Resort?

Biden campaign officials told ABC News that if the provisional certification tactic fails, they would focus on getting state legislatures to pass extensions, per one of Mr. LaRosa’s recommendations.

Mr. LaRosa said in his original letter to Democrats that legislative action would need to be taken by May 9 for an extension, though this course of action faces unclear prospects in Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature.

President Joe Biden speaks in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House, on April 3, 2024. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

President Biden faced the same problem in Alabama, but that appears to be on track to a resolution as lawmakers there advanced legislation on April 17 that would push back the state’s certification deadline from 82 days to 74 days before the general election to accommodate the DNC’s convention schedule.

While Democrats proposed the two identical bills that passed both the Alabama House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, the legislation moved out of committee with support from Republicans, who called it a matter of fairness.

“I’d like to think that if the shoe was on the other foot, that this would be taken care of,“ Alabama state Rep. Sam Givhan, a Republican, said during a committee meeting. ”And I think that Alabamians have a deep sense of fairness when it comes to politics and elections.”

Former President Donald Trump faced a similar issue in Alabama in 2020, with the state Legislature passing legislation to change the certification deadline that year to accommodate the dates of the Republican National Convention.

Like in Ohio, the Alabama secretary of state has maintained lack of authority to accept provisional certification.