The Democratic National Convention does not conclude until August 22, when Joe Biden is formally renominated for president. When the Democrats announced they were scheduling their convention so late in the election cycle, observers immediately noted that the timing fell afoul of two deadlines written into law, those of Alabama and Ohio, which require nominees to be submitted 90 days before Election Day (in other words, the week of August 12).
The matter can be easily fixed; all a legislature need do is pass a technical bill adjusting the date, as legislatures have done frequently in both the past and present, most recently in 2020 during the pandemic. And in fact, one month ago the — overwhelmingly Republican — Alabama legislature acted to do just that, sending a bill to Governor Kay Ivey that made sure Joe Biden’s name would not be stricken from their voters’ ballots.
Ohio’s state house, however, has been disconcertingly mulish about acting to fix the state’s version of this problem. It adjourned once on May 8, and then again on May 22, without addressing the matter. Republican governor Mike DeWine has now called for a special session of the legislature to convene in order to deal with the issue, saying, “Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous — this is an absurd situation.”
We agree with Governor DeWine — Ohio’s legislature should pass a bill ensuring the president of the United States’ name remains on the ballot this November. We emphasize that this is a matter of the utmost gravity. It is not — and cannot possibly ever be — about cheap and temporary partisan advantage. It is a question about the fundamental legitimacy of American elections.
Ohio — once the most hotly contested swing state in presidential politics — is nobody’s idea of an electoral battleground these days. It is now considered to be so safely in Donald Trump’s column for 2024 that neither party seriously plans to contest its electoral votes in November. (Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown faces a strong challenge for reelection in the Senate but has consistently held the upper hand against Republican Bernie Moreno in polling.) It is most likely that the inaction is due to Republicans in the Ohio state legislature — both chambers of which they securely control — feeling like they owe zero favors to Joe Biden in an electoral climate where even being accused of doing one for him is potential fodder for a primary challenge somewhere down the road.
As Alabama’s legislators well understood, this is no favor but rather a basic (and uncontroversial) act of civic responsibility. Joe Biden’s name must be allowed to remain on the Ohio ballot, for to remove it on a four-day technicality (in the renomination of an incumbent) would open Pandora’s box. First and foremost, it would deny Ohio voters a meaningful vote for president of the United States between the two major parties, one it is impossible to argue with any seriousness that voters of the state do not deserve. To allow pointed inaction to permit the president’s name to “default” off the Ohio ballot is to commit a bluntly cynical transgression of civic norms. It is not even good politics; Sherrod Brown would likely benefit from running on voter anger at such transparent self-interest at their expense.
Even more appallingly, were Ohio Republicans to deny Biden a spot on November’s ballot out of pointless spite, they would be undermining every single argument they — and Donald Trump — have been making for the past several years about how government is weaponized against Republicans.
This is not about doing Democrats or Joe Biden a favor. Ohio’s legislators owe it to the voters of their state and the people of the nation to come together and pass a simple fix to this state election law and give Ohio voters the chance to reject Joe Biden fair and square. And Ohio voters should neither forgive nor forget if legislators contrive specious reasons to deny the people of their state an actual voice in the November election.