- Ohio and Alabama, both GOP-led, may not allow Biden on the November ballot.
- Both states require a party candidate to be officially certified within a certain time frame.
- And this year, the DNC, where Biden is expected to be certified, falls after those deadlines.
Ohio and Alabama — both GOP-led states — say they may not allow Biden on the November ballot.
It all comes down to deadlines leading up to Biden’s official nomination, and officials in Ohio and Alabama say Biden may be too late.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen wrote a letter Tuesday to the chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party warning that if the party does not officially certify Biden as its presidential candidate by Aug. 15 , the president will not be allowed to participate in the November ballot. .
Indeed, writes Allen, the state of Alabama requires that political parties provide their certificate of nomination no later than 82 days before the elections, set for November 5.
Biden has already secured enough delegates to win the 2024 nomination.
But the Democratic National Convention – which Biden would get the official green light to – is set to begin four days after that deadline, on August 19.
The same problem arose in 2020 when the Republican National Convention, where Trump was officially nominated, was held after Alabama’s deadline. But Trump was still allowed to participate in the election that year because the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a special bill making a one-time exception to his deadline.
Alabama could do the same thing again this year for Democrats – if it wanted to. Alabama’s secretary of state did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The state of Ohio, led by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, also reported that the Democratic convention would take place after Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline.
Like Alabama, Ohio requires political parties to give their official nominations by the deadline if they want to appear on the ballot. And ahead of the 2020 election, the state also made a one-time exception to that rule because the DNC and RNC that year were scheduled after the deadline, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State confirmed. ‘Ohio to BI.
“This law has been in effect for many years,” Ben Kindel, a spokesman for the Ohio secretary of state, told BI. “Ultimately, both political parties have well-paid lawyers who can advise them on the legal requirements for election access.”
“Each party establishes its own bylaws, holds a national convention, and establishes rules for certifying ballot candidates,” Kindel continued. “Our office is not involved in this process.”
Paul DiSantis, chief legal counsel to the Ohio Secretary of State, wrote a letter to the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party last week. In it, he claims that for Biden to appear on the ballot, the DNC must either move up the date of its convention or the state General Assembly has until May 9 to grant another exception to the deadline .
The Biden campaign insisted it was not worried.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” a Biden campaign spokesperson said in a statement shared with BI. “State officials have the option to grant provisional certification of ballot access prior to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions.”
“In 2020 alone,” the release continued, “states like Alabama, Illinois, Montana, and Washington all allowed provisional certification of Democratic and Republican candidates.”
While Alabama is a deep red state, Ohio is much more competitive, although it has trended more Republican in recent years.
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