The Ohio Legislature adjourned Wednesday without the state’s top election official addressing issues preventing President Biden from running in the state. This could intensify partisan tensions and lead to a situation in which presidential candidates cannot run in all 50 states in November.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he intended to exclude Biden from the vote because he will be officially nominated after the deadline for presidential candidates to be certified on the ballot. This is usually a minor procedural issue, and states almost always propose quick solutions to ensure their major presidential candidates remain on the ballot.
The Biden campaign is considering suing states to ensure Biden’s vote, according to people familiar with the deliberations, while also exploring other ways to resolve the issue without rescheduling the nominating convention. are doing.
Legal battles could be costly and difficult. The Supreme Court recently ruled that states cannot block Trump’s reelection under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding public office. But it took six months of legal wrangling for the court to resolve the issue.
Ohio is not considered a battleground state — Trump won it by an 8-point margin in 2020 — but the Biden campaign is trying to ensure the president is on the ballot in all 50 states. , could be embroiled in a months-long legal battle.
Legislation that would have pushed back the certification deadline to coincide with the delay of the Democratic National Convention stalled this month after Ohio Senate Republicans took a partisan measure to ban foreign contributions to state voting. LaRose previously said passing the ban was the price Democrats would have to pay to ensure Biden was on the ballot, otherwise implementing the law as written.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” Biden campaign spokesman Charles Luttwak said.
“As elections continue, states across the country have acted in line with bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure presidential candidates of both parties appear on the ballot. This election is no exception.” Lutvak said in a statement.
Ohio, which has been heavily Republican, passed temporary certification extensions in 2012 for Presidents Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and in 2020 for President Donald J. Trump.
A similar problem with this year’s certification deadline was resolved when Democrats proposed provisionally certifying Biden’s nomination in Washington state. But LaRose rejected that solution in a letter to the Ohio Democratic Party on Tuesday, citing a legal opinion from the attorney general, who is also a Republican.
LaRose wrote that unless Democrats offer a “legally acceptable remedy” to the issue, he will “instruct the Board of Elections to begin creating ballots that do not include Democratic candidates.”
Ohio Democrats have decried the lack of a legislative solution, with the state party chairman arguing in a statement Tuesday that Republicans are trying to remove Biden from the ballot.
“Republican politicians in the state legislature have made it clear they are trying to take away Ohioans’ ability to choose who they want for president,” party chair Elizabeth Walters said in a statement to the Ohio Capital Journal. “Throughout this process, corrupt politicians in Columbus have politicized this process and used it for political tactics.”
