Efforts to put Joe Biden on the Ohio ballot stall
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – President Joe Biden will not be on Ohio’s ballot come November as things currently stand.
State law dictates filing deadlines for candidates, but the timing of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this fall, where Biden will be officially nominated, takes place after Ohio’s deadline, which is currently 90 days before the election.
According to Secretary of State Frank LaRose, lawmakers had until Thursday to pass something that could be signed into law, also on Thursday, to make the fix. Efforts to do that failed.
“We didn’t have a consensus on how to get that done between the House and the Senate and all parties involved,” Speaker of the Ohio House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said.
“Once again we saw politics and the display of, just frankly, ridiculousness here,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said “They wanted to play politics and silence voters at the end of the day, it’s sad but that’s the reality of where we are.”
Two bills, with a fix, were to be considered on Wednesday. House Bill 114 was amended with a one-time solution, by pushing back the filing deadline, to ensure Biden would make it onto the ballot. That bill was amended in the Senate, with the assumption the House would concur with their changes. All seven Senate Democrats ultimately voted against HB114.
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said her caucus voted against the bill because it also included an election provision that they believe would disenfranchise Ohioans.
“They’re playing games with this, and we had a clean option that everyone had agreed to,” Russo said.
But Huffman said he thinks it is a commonsense bill.
“Joe Biden is going to be on the ballot through whatever means that can happen,” said Senate President Matt Huffman. “But I think it’s fair for us to come to gather and so no foreign money in Ohio elections.”
This is not the first time a presidential candidate has scrambled to get onto the Ohio ballot because the Republican National Convention (RNC) or DNC did not happen before the state’s filing deadline. So, the House amended Senate Bill 92 to create a permanent fix, not just one-time. The bill was stripped of other provisions, making it so it only addressed this issue.
“It’s a technical issue so it should be able to be done,” Stephens said. “But if we can’t, we can’t.”
“My guess it would come over [to the Senate] with 30-some democrats and 20-ish Republicans and there’s no realistic way that I’m going to look at my caucus and say, ‘Republicans didn’t support it in the House, but we should pass it too,” Huffman said. “So that was a non-starter, I think in both houses.”
Other states, like Alabama, have passed a bipartisan fix for the same issue, but Huffman said that’s not likely in Ohio unless conservative measures are also in the bill.
“Republicans in both the House and the Senate are not going to vote on a standalone Biden bill,” he said.
“I think we’ve officially sunk lower than Alabama at this point,” Russo said.
Now, new options, to ensure Biden is on the ballot, are being explored.
“There’s a lot of different options in order to get him on the ballot,” Stephens said. “I think that President Biden will end up on the Ohio ballot as we go forward.”
“Listen, Biden will be on the ballot,” Russo said. “The legislative fix is not the only option here.”
Some of the other options include:
Lawmakers could add an emergency clause to one of their proposed bills, so it takes effect immediately.
Democrats could figure out a solution with the national party.
It can be taken up in the courts.
“I’m not worried,” Antonio said. “I believe it is a bipartisan want and need that both of those candidates are on the ballot.”
Statehouse sources told NBC4 that at this point, a legislative fix seems unlikely, and an inner-party solution seems most probable, though no decision has been made. But again, this is not the first time this has happened, so Antonio said she would like to see something like SB92 go through, where the fix would apply to future elections.
“Unless we do a permanent fix it will affect perhaps the Republicans next time, perhaps both [parties], I mean it just goes on and on,” Antonio said.
On both sides of the aisle, leaders are confident that Biden will be on Ohio’s ballot.
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