Ohio’s top election official has warned Democrats his state might exclude Joe Biden from the 2024 presidential election ballot because of a technicality.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned the party that the Democratic National Convention is currently scheduled to take place a week after the state’s deadline to declare a candidate expires.
In a letter to Ohio’s Democratic Party, LaRose wrote: “The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to convene on August 19, 2024, which occurs more than a week after the August 7 deadline to certify a presidential candidate to the office.”
The Secretary of State, however, noted the party can resolve the issue by either moving up the nomination convention or lodging a request with the state legislature to “create an exemption to this statutory requirement” by May 9.
A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said they are “monitoring the situation in Ohio and we’re confident that Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states.”
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Barack Obama became the first presidential contender to shave off that electoral vote in 2008.
If Biden were to win the Rust Belt swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, an electoral vote from Nebraska would give him the 270 electoral votes he needs to win reelection, even if Trump wins all the other swing states.
Republican state Sen. Julie Slama answered Pillen’s call by taking a winner-take-all bill currently stalled in committee and attaching it as an amendment to an unrelated bill — a practice not allowed under the Nebraska Constitution.
When the amendment was challenged, Slama called on her colleagues to ignore the law.
