The Democratic National Committee will hold a virtual roll call to officially make President Biden the Democratic nominee before the party’s August convention so he can make it onto the Ohio ballot, the committee said.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when the time DNC chairman has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own,” Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
“Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice,” he said.
Ohio law requires the certification of presidential nominees by their respective political parties 90 days before the election, meaning the nominees need to be certified by Aug. 7 to be on the state’s ballot. The Democratic National Convention, where nominees are typically certified, starts on Aug. 19.
No date is set yet for the virtual call.
Earlier this month, the state’s Senate Republicans added and passed a fix to the deadline issue to a bill, along with a provision that would ban foreign contributions in ballot initiatives, which angered Democrats
But, the state House didn’t take up the bill, or its own that had a solution to the deadline issue, before adjourning.
Ohio lawmakers convened Tuesday for a special session to figure out a way to fix the issue of Mr. Biden not being on the ballot. The virtual roll call vote was announced before they convened.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, suggested the special session last week to fix this issue.
“Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous — this is an absurd situation,” Mr. DeWine said during a news conference last week.
The special session Tuesday focuses on two bills — one that addresses the ballot deadline, and another that would ban foreign contributions in ballot initiatives.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.