Ohio GOP threatening to kick Biden off the ballot
With Florida now in play, is the Ohio GOP nervous about the Buckeye State?
This weekend, several news outlets are reporting that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose—who finished a distant third in the March Republican Senate primary—is now turning his focus to keeping Joe Biden off the ballot in Ohio this fall to remove any possibility of the president flipping Ohio blue again.
According to NBC News, LaRose, the chief elections officer in the state, is attempting to use a technicality that has been ignored by both parties for decades to automatically hand the state to former president Trump. In a letter to Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters, LaRose suggested that because the Democratic National Convention is August 19, a week after the August 7 deadline to certify a candidate, that it would be too late for Biden to appear on the ballot.
The only other option for keeping Biden on the ballot would be for the state legislature to create an exemption by May 9—which seems unlikely considering the heavily MAGA composition of the body. Let’s not forget that these are the same folks who tried to construct barriers in an attempt to deter supporters of reproductive rights last year.
Of course, this ballot deadline technicality has been ignored by Republicans in the recent past when it suited their own needs. The 2020 Republican National Convention was held August 24. The 2012 convention was August 27-30. And the 2008 nominating convention for John McCain and Sarah Palin was held as late as September 4.
Stay tuned…
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