Democrats opposed a Republican provision that would have banned foreign funding from the ballot initiative.
The Ohio State Legislature convened a special session on Tuesday to consider whether President Joe Biden should appear on the ballot in November’s general election, but the Democratic National Committee said it would hold a virtual party-line to certify Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee — a move coinciding with Ohio’s deadline for certifying ballots.
Ohio Senate Republicans ultimately passed a bill that would allow Biden’s name to appear on the ballot in November’s general election while banning foreign donations to ballot issue campaigns. The latter was a direct response to Republican opposition to last year’s “Issue 1” campaign that would have created constitutional protections for abortion in the state. But the move came without Democratic support, and after the Democratic National Convention announcement, lawmakers appeared empowered to vote against the bill.
“We don’t need your machinations. The Democratic National Committee issued a statement just minutes ago announcing that they will hold a virtual vote of delegates across the country and nominate President Biden as their nominee,” state Sen. Bill DeMollah said Tuesday. “We don’t want any legislative maneuvering that subjects voters and their rights to the whims of the majority.”
The Democratic National Committee’s move to hold a virtual nomination avoids concerns about ballot access in Ohio, where Biden’s access to the ballot has been unclear due to a dispute over the party’s formal presidential nomination and the deadline for state election certification.
Ohio law requires political parties to finalize their presidential nominee 90 days before the general election, which is by Aug. 7. Biden did not officially become the nominee until after the deadline, when the Democratic National Convention convenes on Aug. 19, but the virtual nomination ensured that Biden would be nominated before the Aug. 7 deadline.
The bill passed by Ohio senators on Tuesday extends the deadline by 74 days, until after the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 23. The House of Representatives still must take up the bill.
The Ohio Senate on Tuesday considered just one bill that combined both voting issue fixes for Biden and a ban on foreign donations to his campaign. Democrats opposed efforts by Ohio Republicans to pass both issues during the special session, arguing that Republicans had politicized a legislative fix to address vote certification – a measure that has been accepted by both parties in previous election cycles.
“This special session and these two bills combined is a political deal to try to make President Biden pay some kind of price for running for office,” House Democratic Leader Dani Isacson said at a meeting of the House Government Oversight Committee Tuesday morning.
Republicans rejected the claim that trying to merge the issues was “partisan.”
“Which one is really partisan? If we all agree that foreign interference in our elections and foreign contributions to our elections are a problem, why would anyone vote against this bill?” said Republican Sen. Rob McCauley.
Ohio is the only state where Mr Biden is ineligible to appear on the ballot in November’s election. Alabama also faced a discrepancy between the state’s certification of its ballots and Mr Biden’s formal nomination, but the state legislature unanimously passed an amendment in May that was signed by Republican Governor Kay Ivey.
“We couldn’t just pass a pretty bill, like Alabama and other states that have had to deal with this issue this time around, put Biden on the ballot and deal with all the other issues separately, but putting them together has been a source of heartburn for all of us,” Senate Minority Leader Nicky Antonio, a Democrat, said on the floor Tuesday.
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, last week pushed for a special session to address the issue legislatively.
But DeWine also supported a Republican-led effort to ban foreign money from problem-solving campaigns.
The Biden campaign has insisted that the president “will be on the ballot in all 50 states.”
“As the election has continued, states across the country have acted in bipartisan agreement to take the necessary steps to ensure that presidential candidates from both parties appear on the ballot, and this election is no exception. Alabama and Washington, both with the full support of the Republican Party, have already taken action to ensure that voters can exercise their right to vote for the candidate of their choice in November,” Biden campaign spokesman Charles Luttwak said in a statement to ABC News.
ABC News’ Mike Papano contributed to this report.
