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GOP
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Thanks to the many readers who sent this story in to items@electoral-vote.com. As the headline notes, Joe Biden is potentially at risk of being left off Ohio's ballot in November, according to a letter sent to Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R).
The problem here is that Ohio state law dictates that the deadline for candidates to qualify for the ballot is August 7, while the Democratic National Convention is not until August 19. So, LaRose is warning that he might just have to leave the Democratic line on the ballot blank. The two available fixes, according to LaRose's letter, are: (1) that the Democrats hold their convention earlier, or (2) that the (Republican-dominated) state legislature passes a resolution granting the Biden campaign a one-time exception to the law.
We will make a couple of observations here. First, if this was, say, New York and Donald Trump instead of Ohio and Biden, Republicans would be screaming bloody murder. "See," they would say. "We told you Democrats are trying to steal the election!" Similarly, if it was Ohio and Trump instead of Ohio and Biden, LaRose would discover yesterday that he has the authority to make a judgment call, and either to put the presumptive nominee on the ballot or to hold off until all the conventions have been held.
The second observation is that if it was some other red/reddish state, it might actually behoove the Biden campaign to stick to their guns and to let the President be omitted. If we were talking, say, Wyoming or Alabama or South Carolina, Biden and his surrogates could say: "Well, the Republicans have erased the Democrats from one presidential ballot this year. How many will it be in 2028? You know, the Southern states did the same thing to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s..."
Because it's Ohio, however, Biden simply has to be on the ballot in case his coattails help Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) win reelection. So, maybe the Democrats will blink and move their convention. On the other hand, it would look very bad for Ohio to disqualify Biden on a silly technicality, especially since all 49 other states (including several with much larger populations than Ohio) are somehow able to pull their ballots together even if they have to wait until late August for the Democratic nominee to be official. Plus, the Ohio law might well be something that could be challenged in court. So the easiest resolution here, we think, is that the Ohio legislature steps in with a fix. But the Republicans control the trifecta in Ohio, so who knows. On the other hand, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is not a crazy MAGA-ite, so he might ask the legislature to change the date and they might comply. (Z)