The top election commissioner in Ohio, a Republican, has issued a warning that President Joe Biden may not be able to legally appear on Ohio’s ballot due to the date of this year’s Democratic National Convention.
The Ohio Democratic Party chair received a letter from Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office on April 5 reminding her that Ohio law mandates that all parties nominate a presidential candidate by August 7—90 days prior to the general election. This information was reported by the Columbus Dispatch.
Paul Disantis, Mr. LaRose’s lead attorney, wrote a letter requesting an explanation for “an apparent conflict in Ohio law” involving the schedule of the convention and the legally-mandated deadline for Mr. LaRose’s office to certify the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees.
“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 stated.
The deadline will have gone by the time Democrats get together in Chicago on August 19 for the official nominating convention, unless Ohio’s legislature takes action to waive it.
Legislators from Buckeye State have previously disregarded the deadline of August 7th in cases where party conventions were scheduled later.
Due to the party conventions taking place in the following year, state legislators altered the rule once in 2019 and shortened the pre-election requirement from 90 days to 60 days beforehand.
A representative for President Biden’s 2020 reelection campaign issued a statement in which they stated they were “monitoring the situation” and that they were “confident” that Mr. Biden will be “on the ballot in all 50 states.”
