That’s a long time before the Nov. 5 ballots are sent to the printer, election officials and experts say

President Joe BidenSunday’s decision for resign as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will not affect the ability of election officials to properly prepare ballots for November 5th. election.

Even before the president withdrew, election officials across the state knew they would not be able to place the party’s candidate on the ballot until Democratic National Committee delegates approved the party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominations when they meet. in Chicago in August. 19-22. Additionally, Florida voters will vote to choose nominees for dozens of other state and local races on August 20.

“That’s not a problem,” Palm Beach County Elections Chief Wendy Link said Sunday. “Each state, of course, is different, but none of the states have printed their general election ballots yet, so that won’t be an issue.”

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Link said the deadline to have all the names on the ballot in the general election is August 24th. Democrats are closing in on the deadline, but she doesn’t foresee any problems.

“This is very close to the end of the convention,” she said of the state deadline. “Still, the fact that there is this change will not really promote, from an administrative or logistical point of view, it will not affect them.

Link also highlighted that state and local election officials, including his office, have no role in any of the voting processes at party conventions.

“We are not part of the convention voting process,” she said. “The conventions nominate and choose who they want, as electoral authorities we are not involved in this voting process. I think sometimes people get confused about this… After that, we get the names for the vote. It doesn’t affect us at all.”

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The party chooses its delegates so that state authorities have no role, said electoral law expert

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, noted that the Democratic Party did not yet have an “official” candidate.

“Until the delegates vote, Democratic Party rules say there is no official Democratic candidate,” he said. “There is no one to replace in the vote because there is nothing to replace yet.”

Like Link, Becker noted that not only will Florida have its primaries next month, but half of the states have not yet held their primaries, so no states have sent ballots to printers.

Becker said Biden’s move is unprecedented, but both major parties have long had rules in place to deal with a circumstance in which a presumptive nominee may not be able or willing to proceed. These contingencies have guidelines for dealing with such events before or after a convention has formally named them.

Becker added that talk of litigation or lawsuits to force Biden’s name on the ballot simply because he won the vast majority of delegates in state primaries and caucuses is legally meaningless. It is the parties, not the states, that choose their representatives at the polls, not the states.

“These allegations are less than frivolous. They are not supported by anything in the law,” he said. “They amount to what is an attempt by a political party to force an opposing political party to put someone on the ballot who chooses not to run.”

Becker said the recent Trump v. Anderson, who sought to disqualify Republican candidate Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado on grounds of the 14th Amendment, further “improves” the case for Democrats choosing new candidates at their convention. In the Trump case, Becker said, all nine U.S. Supreme Court justices said they were concerned about the idea that a state, or a group of states, could affect the outcome of an election by choosing to offer voting access or refusing to vote. access to voting. for a particular presidential candidate.

“Everyone agreed that this is something no state should have the power to do,” Becker said. “So I’m 100% confident that whoever the Democratic nominee is, and also the vice presidential election, will be on the ballot in November.”

He emphasized that this is important to keep in mind given that “we are in uncertain times” as no presumptive candidate from a major party has ever resigned.

The closest the nation came to a moment like this was in 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson abruptly ended his reelection campaign early in the primary calendar. At the time, however, Johnson was still far from being the party’s likely choice.

“This is the first time this has happened in history,” Becker said.

Antonio Fins is politics and business editor at Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can contact him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on the Palm Beach Post: Biden leaves: plenty of time to change names of Democratic candidates