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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) has just sent off a letter very much like the one that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) sent off about a week ago. Both letters warn the Biden campaign that this year's Democratic National Convention, scheduled for August 19-22, comes after the deadline for ballot certification. In other words, if the Democrats don't move their convention up, Biden could be booted off both states' ballots in November.
Whatever can be done? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Is there any historical precedent whatsoever for this situation? As it turns out, well, yes there is. A number of readers wrote in to point out that, in 2020, the Republican National Convention was held August 24-27. This makes sense, since the party that holds the White House always goes second. Anyhow, what did legislators in those two states do when they discovered the problem back in 2020? They quickly passed waivers granting the Republican Party extra time to send in its certification (in fact, Ohio had to grant that concession to both parties, as the 2020 Democratic convention was also held after the deadline).
Clearly, the Ohio and Alabama legislatures are going to have to blink here, right? Otherwise, they will get their pants sued off. They can't give concessions to one party and not the other. Alternatively, they could just permanently change the cutoff date to something more realistic. Six of the last eight Democratic conventions were not held in time to meet the current deadlines in Ohio and Alabama, along with five of the last eight Republican conventions. One wonders exactly what is being accomplished with these obviously unrealistic deadlines, not to mention these "dire warning" letters from the secretaries of state. (Z)