The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is planning to virtually nominate President Biden ahead of the party convention, after the Ohio state Legislature deadlocked last week on putting the president on the ballot in November.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison announced that Democrats would hold a virtual call to ensure Biden gets to the polls in all 50 states — an announcement made the same day Ohio state lawmakers returned to the Capitol for a special session to resolve the issue of Biden’s ballot access.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when it came time to act, they failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on their own,” Harrison said in a statement.
“Through a virtual call, we will ensure that Republicans cannot destroy our democracy through incompetence or partisan trickery and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice,” he added.
Democrats were notified earlier this year that the timing of their convention fell short of the state deadline to certify the party’s presidential nominee. Democrats needed to certify Biden by August 7th to be able to vote in Ohio, but the Democratic National Convention begins on August 19th.
Ohio lawmakers struggled to come up with a legislative solution; Senate Republicans passed a bill that would allow a one-time solution that would delay the certification deadline so Democrats could do so. But it was also accompanied by a provision that would ban foreign contributions to ballot initiatives, which Democrats rejected.
The state House worked on a more permanent solution that would change the certification deadline, but in the end none of these bills received an official vote in the lower house.
Liz Walters, chairwoman of the Ohio Democratic Party, accused Republicans of “playing politics with our democracy” in a statement Tuesday.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) last week ordered lawmakers to return to the Capitol this week to find a solution to get Biden on the ballot, expressing support for a solution similar to the one proposed by the Senate, which included the contribution clause foreign.
That raised questions about how Democrats in the state would proceed, given their opposition to the state Senate proposal. The DNC’s solution offers Biden a path to the vote while avoiding a costly lawsuit.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
