Democrats made a big mistake in scheduling their national convention this year.
Several states, including Ohio, require the presidential candidate to be certified before the filing deadline, but the Dem convention is currently slated to take place after these states' deadlines.
Talking Points…
- Missing the deadline
- Responses to possible ballot issues for Biden
- Analysis
Common sense says that the people responsible for scheduling the national convention dates would know all the filing deadlines for every state in the country. Whoever is doing that for the Democrats, however, dropped the ball. Two states, Alabama and Ohio, require the candidate to be certified as the nominee before the current date of the Democratic National Convention, where the nominee will be formally chosen.
Democrats have started pushing legislation in each state to move that deadline back to allow Biden to formally be nominated during the convention, which is currently slated to begin on August 19. The problem, however, is that Republicans control both state legislatures, and they appear ready to get some revenge against Democrats for their efforts to have Trump removed from the ballot, an issue that was not solved until it was taken to the Supreme Court.
Democrats are now making the argument that state legislatures made an exception for Trump when the RNC previously made the same mistake last election. But, as I stated, the GOP controls these legislatures, and we in a day and age of tit for tat politics, so the GOP is going to make life very difficult for Democrats on this front. In both states, Democrats are pushing legislation. In Alabama, Democrat Senator Merika Coleman, who sponsored the bill to change the deadline from 82 days out to 74 days, stated:
"We want to make sure every citizen in the state of Alabama has the opportunity to vote for the candidate of his or her choice."
Coleman found a friendly ear in her state legislature, as Republicans were a bit generous in how they believed Democrats would respond if they controlled the state legislature, and this was happening to a Republican. GOP Senator Sam Givhan stated:
"I'd like to think that if the shoe was on the other foot, that this would be taken care of. And I think that Alabamians have a deep sense of fairness when it comes to politics and elections."
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was not so receptive to the idea of Democrats passing legislation to accommodate Biden. After Democrats proposed a provision to the state law requiring candidates to "have secured the pledged delegates necessary to become the party's nominee," Yost shot them down, stating:
"The Democratic Party's notion of providing a 'provisional certification' by the statutory deadline simply is not provided for by law. Instead, the law mandates the Democratic Party to actually certify its president and vice-president candidates on or before August 7, 2024. No alternative process is permitted.
"Thus, the Secretary of State lacks authority to accept 'provisional certifications' from the Democratic Party pursuant to [the law]. The Democratic Party must actually certify its presidential candidates on or before August 7, 2024 to be placed on the 2024 General Election ballot."
Biden has no chance of winning Alabama, but Ohio is still on the board based on current polling, but that is beside the point here. First, how do the people in charge of these conventions not check these certification dates before picking the dates for their national conventions to take place? The media is going to roast Republicans over this (after having pushed the idea of removing Trump from the ballot). This is one of those Catch-22 situations where both parties now have to flip the stance they made when Trump being removed from the ballot was on the table.
I get the anger and the GOP wanting to stick it to Biden, but in a state that he is likely to lose, I would not be making this move. In fact, I would do quite the opposite. I would make a showing of how the GOP bent over backward to help ensure that Biden was on the ballot so Americans could choose, then slam the Dems for their efforts to remove Trump from the ballot in several blue states. If you ask me, that would make one hell of a campaign ad to drive more votes to Trump nationwide.
