Biden Faces Potential Exclusion from Ohio Ballot Due to Legal Technicalities

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Joe Biden is at risk of being excluded from the Ohio ballot in the upcoming presidential election for failing to meet specific state law criteria, experts told Sputnik.

Ohio law mandates that political parties must certify their candidates with the Secretary of State at least 90 days before an election. However, the Democratic National Convention, where Biden is expected to be officially nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, will not take place until August 22, which is only 75 days before the election.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has stated she will not grant Biden any special exceptions to the law and advised the Democratic Party to find a legally acceptable solution. She also mentioned that the state legislature is not inclined to amend the state law in Biden’s favor.

Jonathan Entin, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University and former law clerk for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, described the situation as alarming. “Everyone involved claims that Biden will appear on the Ohio ballot this fall, but so far the situation remains unresolved,” Entin said. “The prospect that a major party’s presidential candidate will not appear on the ballot is genuinely shocking – as is the unwillingness of the legislative leadership to resolve the problem quickly and without controversy.”

Entin expects the Biden campaign to file a lawsuit soon, which is likely to be successful. “It is also possible that we will see some sort of workaround in which the Democratic National Committee creates some kind of improvised certification before Ohio’s August 7 deadline,” he added.

David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, also believes Biden will eventually be included on the Ohio ballot but acknowledges that it will require extraordinary efforts. Niven suggested that the Democratic Party could hold a pre-convention meeting to designate Biden as the nominee within the required timeline to ensure his qualification for the ballot.

Niven warned that failure to include Biden on the ballot would have devastating consequences for the entire Democratic ticket in Ohio. “Leaving the president off the ballot is simply intolerable for Democrats,” he said. “Since the Republican-dominated state legislature in Ohio petulantly refused to pass a waiver, it will be up to the Democratic Party to find a mechanism to officially nominate President Biden before their scheduled convention.”

Currently, Biden trails former President Donald Trump by one point in national polls, according to an aggregation by RealClearPolitics.