Biden to be nominated virtually before the convention in order to get on Ohio’s ballot
The Democratic National Committee announced on Tuesday that it will nominate President Joe Biden through a “virtual roll call” vote ahead of the August convention to ensure he appears on the Ohio ballot this November.
Ohio’s ballot deadline is Aug. 7, two weeks before the DNC planned to hold its official presidential nomination at an in-person convention in Chicago. Frank LaRose, the Republican secretary of state, warned last week that Biden would not be on the state’s ballot unless the state lawmakers moved the ballot access deadline to after the Democratic convention. Days later, the DNC announced it would expedite the nominating process, though no date has yet been announced for the virtual roll call.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own,” DNC chair 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.”
The virtual nomination will look similar to the process the party used during the 2020 convention, when most of the proceedings were impacted by the Covid pandemic. The DNC said the Chicago convention will still go on as planned, serving as a convening event for the party.
There are typically a few states each election year whose ballot certification deadlines do not align with the party’s official nominating convention. These misalignments are almost always quietly resolved by either the state legislature or by the secretary of state.
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, called a special session to pass a law ensuring that Biden does appear on the ballot. But GOP lawmakers would only agree to such a change only if it included a campaign finance bill that would stop foreign donations to state and local ballot-issue campaigns. The party’s supermajority shot down a proposal by Democrats to pass a clean measure that would have moved the ballot deadline past the convention with no accompanying changes.
The state of Washington and Alabama also have early certification deadlines that fall before the DNC. But Democrats in the former resolved the issue by offering a provisional certification of Biden’s nomination. Lawmakers in Alabama passed legislation earlier this spring that deferred the state’s certification deadline until after the DNC.
