COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke from the statehouse Thursday afternoon where he called for a special session of the Ohio General Assembly to begin Tuesday, May 28, to ensure both presidential candidates will appear on Ohio’s ballot.
The current president and vice president may not be on the ballot in Ohio this November due to a timing conflict between the Democratic National Convention and a state deadline, a top election official in the state warned this week as the legislature ended its May session without resolving the procedural issue.
When this has happened in the past, DeWine said, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation to “remedy the situation” so both candidates appeared on the ballot. He said general assembly leaders indicated they would work on bills to provide a similar remedy in this election.
The governor said the Senate has passed several bills that would fix the problem but that the House has been unable to do so.
“This is simply unacceptable,” he said. “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.”
The governor said another purpose of the special session would be to pass legislation to prohibit campaign spending by foreign nationals.
“It is important that when Ohioans cast their vote for president of the United States, United States senator and many, many other officials this fall, that they have the opportunity to cast a vote for either of the major party candidates for these offices. It’s important that when they go to vote for president, that Joe Biden be on the ballot as well as Donald Trump.”
While he said there is certainly a need for a long-term fix to this problem, he said he’d be satisfied with a short-term one for now. He said a short-term fix is easy to do.
This is an extraordinary situation, he said. If the general assembly doesn’t pass legislation to fix this, the current president’s name would not be on the ballot, DeWine said, unless a court would intervene.
The governor said it’s his understanding that we’re “up against the wall” and that if we’d go beyond Wednesday of next week, there would be some serious problems.
“I’ve waited. I’ve been patient, and my patience has run out,” DeWine said. “And I think the patience of the people of the state of Ohio, their patience should have run out by now as well.”
Spectrum News Digital Journalist Joseph Konig contributed to this report.