President Biden is at risk of being left off the Ohio presidential ballot in November because his nomination to be the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer won’t be certified until after the state’s ballot deadline, a state election official warned last week.
Under Ohio law, presidential candidates must be certified by Aug. 7 – 90 days before the general election – but Biden, 81, will not be formally confirmed as the Democratic Party nominee until the Democratic National Convention, which starts Aug. 19.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office, which oversees elections in the Buckeye State, warned the Ohio Democratic Party on Friday that the president risks being left off the ballot unless the convention is moved up or an “exception” is made for Biden.
“Please contact me as soon as possible with any information that can assure this office of timely compliance with Ohio law,” Paul Disantis, chief legal counsel for the Ohio secretary of state, wrote in a letter to Ohio Dems Chairwoman Liz Walters on Friday.
“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,” he added, according to CNN.
The logistics involved in moving up the Democratic National Convention dates make that option seem highly unlikely.
The only other alternative for getting Biden on the ballot, as Disantis points out, would be for the Republican-controlled state legislature to change state election laws.
“We’re looking into the matter,” a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party told The Post.
“We’re monitoring the situation and we’re confident we’ll be on the ballot in all 50 states,” a Biden campaign spokesperson told The Post.
A similar scenario played out before the 2020 election, when both the Republican and Democratic conventions were scheduled after Ohio’s ballot deadline, leading state lawmakers to approve a one-time change in state law, moving the cutoff date to 60 days before the general election.
If state lawmakers don’t approve a similar waiver in 2024, the results could be disastrous for both Biden and down-ballot Democrats, like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who will face off against Trump-backed entrepreneur Bernie Moreno.
Last month, a Florida Atlantic University/Mainstreet Research poll showed former President Donald Trump leading Biden in Ohio by 11 percentage points, whereas Brown was ahead of Moreno by the same margin.
In Florida, after the state Democratic Party canceled its March primary and opted to award all delegates to Biden, record-low turnout helped Republicans flip several city council and mayoral seats in the Sunshine State.