Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) recently called a special session of the state legislature next week to ensure President Joe Biden is on November’s ballot. It has been noted that the Buckeye State has a ballot deadline of August 7.
However, the Democratic National Convention will not be held until Aug. 19-22. Moreover, Ohio’s legislature has become bogged down over wrangling about keeping foreign money out of ballot referenda campaigns via Mediaite.
On Thursday, DeWine announced he is calling a rare special session to address Biden’s ballot access.
“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 unacceptable. This is ridiculous. This is [an] absurd situation,” the governor said.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient. And my patience has run out.”
The special session will be the state’s first since 2004. Biden had lost Ohio to Donald Trump in 2020 by eight percentage points, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016. The 2020 contest marked the first election in which Ohio did not vote for the overall winner since 1960.
Earlier this month, Alabama enacted legislation to make sure Biden would appear on the ballot in that state, which also had a certification deadline before the Democratic convention. Alabama has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
The Biden ballot drama comes after Trump was temporarily ordered removed from the ballots in Colorado in Maine. Officials in those states cited the former president’s role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. They ruled his actions violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding federal office.
“Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the states, responsible for enforcing section 3 against all federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse,” the court said in a unanimous opinion.
