(USNewsMag.com) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine held a special session calling on Ohio lawmakers to change a law keeping President Joe Biden off the state’s ballot in the upcoming presidential election. As both state congressional chambers scramble to reach a compromise, the Ohio House of Representatives has mostly held up the process due to a disagreement with the Senate on a solution.
During a surprise news conference on Thursday, May 23rd, DeWine noted that his state “is running out of time” to get the “sitting president” on the ballot, adding that a failure to do so would be unacceptable and describing the situation as “ridiculous” and “absurd.” Although lawmakers have assured that Biden would “100% be” on Ohio’s ballot, it’s unclear if it would be from their intervention or some other avenue.
The state of Ohio requires each party to confirm its candidates within 90 days of the general election in November. That date would be Aug. 7th, but the president isn’t set to be officiated as his party’s nominee until Aug. 19th when the Democratic National Convention will take place.
So how can the president still get on the ballot? There are two ways: either the Democratic National Committee (DNC) could announce earlier, or lawmakers can change the deadline by which the candidate must be officiated. Both the Ohio House and Senate went with a form of option two but disagreed about whether or not the deadline change should be permanent.
The House’s bill calls for a permanent remedy to the deadline issue by extending it to Aug. 23rd going forward, believing the rule is “anti-democratic.” The Senate’s proposal was only willing to extend the deadline for this year.
DeWine and the GOP lawmakers have received criticism from fellow party members for allegedly helping their enemies, while others have commended their efforts as fair even in the face of previous efforts by Democrats to remove former President Donald Trump from state ballots.
The lawmakers gathered on Tuesday, May 28th, for a special session. Negotiations were led by Republican Ohio Sens. Bill Seitz and Rob McColley, who confirmed no resolution was reached. However, the DNC later announced that they would nominate Biden virtually ahead of the August 7th deadline.
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