Ohio is running out of time to get President Joe Biden on the ballot this fall.

The Democratic National Convention, where Biden is to be formally nominated, takes place after Ohio’s ballot deadline of Aug. 7. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. Therefore, legislators will need to come together to vote to pass a temporary waiver allowing President Biden on the ballot.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Mike DeWine is calling a rare special session of the general assembly Tuesday

  • It’s to pass legislation ensuring that President Joe Biden is on Ohio’s 2024 ballot

  • Gov. DeWine called the situation "unacceptable, "ridiculous" and "absurd" 

  • The last time the governor of Ohio called a special session was in 2004 when Gov. Bob Taft was in office

Jonathan Entin, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said this issue is not a new concept. In 2012 and 2020, both conventions came after the deadline and the legislature passed a temporary waiver so that both candidates could get on the ballot.

“We had a similar situation in Alabama this year, and that's a really red state, and the Alabama legislature unanimously waived the deadline so that President Biden could get on the ballot,” Entin said. “I think it is inconceivable that President Biden will not be on the ballot. I mean, we would be the laughing stock of the country if this didn't get solved, and as as strange as politics can be, at the end of the day, I think that they're going to work this problem out. But after that, we shouldn't be giving them credit for doing something like getting out of bed in the morning, which is essentially what we're talking about here.”

Entin said the issue is now entangled in a partisan legislative fight to keep foreign money out of state ballot campaigns. Republicans in the Senate added a provision that prohibits foreign nationals from making contributions to campaigns relating to ballot issues, and Democrats don't like that. He said the Democrats in the Senate voted against that bill, and the House couldn't agree to vote on anything.

Gov. DeWine called the situation "unacceptable, "ridiculous" and "absurd" and said his patience has run out. 

“I mean, for Governor DeWine to say that will tell you a lot,” Entin said. “I mean, Governor DeWine has been around for a long time. He doesn't shoot off his mouth, you know, he tends to speak carefully and so it's possible that the fact that he has finally stepped up and said, come on people, do your job, will make some difference.” 

The Ohio Republican Party agrees with DeWine. The party released this statement:

“Although we are confident that Donald Trump will win decisively in November, we agree wholeheartedly with the Governor’s decision to call the legislature into an emergency session to place Joe Biden on the November ballot.

We, along with our Senate nominee Bernie Moreno, Senator JD Vance, and countless other Republicans, strongly support the idea that Ohioans deserve the opportunity to cast their votes for their preferred major-party candidate and that we also deserve to have elections that are free from foreign financial interests.

We encourage all legislators to get this done for the good of all Ohioans.”

Entin said DeWine doesn’t have a lot of additional leverage as he can’t change the deadline on his own, but he can call repeated special sessions until they get this accomplished. Entin suspects that if this doesn't get fixed in the special session on Tuesday, we’ll see a lawsuit filed by Democrats very quickly on the basis that it is unconstitutional for Ohio to exclude a major party presidential candidate from the ballot. 

“A lawsuit isn't a slam dunk, but I think that the Democrats would have a pretty powerful legal argument that this is an arbitrary deadline and you can't run a federal election if one of the major parties can't even get its candidate on the ballot because of an arbitrary deadline, that is not really necessary for the state to run an orderly election,” Entin said. 

DeWine reassured Ohioians earlier this week that President Biden’s name will be on the ballot in one way or another. 

“As I've said before, no one should worry,” DeWine said on May 21. “They're going to be able to vote for the president or the former president, whoever they want to vote for. You know, this is not going to be a situation where the president's name is not on the ballot. So it's either going to be done by a court or it's going to be done by the legislature.”

The last time the governor of Ohio called a special session like this was in 2004 when Gov. Bob Taft was in office.

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