For those who aren’t familiar with this bizarre little saga, the basic background is this: Ohio state law requires officials to certify the ballot 90 days before an election (which, in this case this year, is August 7th).
Although, as noted further down, actual enforcement of this law seems to have the consistency of a mood ring.
At issue, as reported earlier this month, is that the Democratic National Convention is being held on August 19th this year — 12 days after the deadline. As such, Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State, told the Biden campaign that Biden may not be on the ballot unless they move up the convention — which would be logistically difficult, to put it mildly.
Now, this scenario could, of course, be easily resolved by Ohio Democrats provisionally certifying the President before August 7th — and the party’s attorney, Don McTigue, told the Attorney General’s office they would do exactly that, in a letter (Biden has already secured the delegates necessary after overwhelmingly winning the state primary with almost 90% of the vote).
The response?
But Attorney General Dave Yost's office says provisional approval won't work, nor can LaRose unilaterally change election deadlines….the law mandates the Democratic Party to actually certify its president and vice-president candidates on or before August 7, 2024," Julie M. Pfeiffer, an attorney on Yost's staff, told LaRose's legal counsel. "No alternative process is permitted."
To understand how insane this is, there has only been ONE time that both parties have finished their leadership conventions before the deadline: in 2016. Apart from that, in the last *40 years*, at least one of the two parties has held their convention after the deadline — and in every single case, that state has either done a provisional certification or resolved it in their legislature, without debate.
So now that it’s been established that this is historically *nuts*, what’s the next move?
How about the legislature resolving it — you know, like they already did, with no debate, in 2020 when BOTH Dems and the GOP had scheduled their conventions after the deadline. Seems like an easy fix, right?
Well, not so fast, apparently, as Dems in the Ohio legislature now say they’re “deferring to the DNC” on the matter — and Ohio Republicans are, of course, telling them to pound sand (again, despite the fact that they resolved the same issue in the legislature in 2020 — as did Washington, Oklahoma, Montana and Illinois).
So - what’s left?
A lawsuit?
Given that both Alabama and Washington have similar deadlines that the Dem convention is scheduled after, Alabama Republicans may very well end up pulling the same nonsense — although, so far, at least, there’s no sign of that — and Washington’s Secretary of State has already said they’d accept a provisional certification.
President Biden’s campaign is not signaling what their next step is — however, it’s quite clear what it would be, if this isn’t resolved.
Responding to Yost’s rejection of provisional certification, a Biden campaign official stated:
"Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states. State officials have the ability to grant provisional ballot access certification prior to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions."
Yes, they certainly do; however, this response was made AFTER Democrats in the Ohio state legislature had already said they were leaving the solution up to the DNC (for now, at least) — and even with Republicans in the state legislature not likely to lift a bony little finger to help resolve it, it seems that, for the moment, the Biden campaign is still betting that they’ll be able to convince the legislature to pass the provisional certification.
If they’re unable to, the only option left is, well... a lot of lawyers.
NOTE: A question on this issue that a couple of members have raised is: can Biden be officially nominated *prior* to the convention, sans pomp & circumstance, with a team of officials in the room and a small ceremony in order to meet Ohio’s deadline? I haven’t seen that mentioned as an option in any of the articles on this or from the Biden campaign or the DNC; but perhaps it’s something that could be done and still be within the nominating rules and someone could clarify as to whether it’s a possibility.