COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio lawmakers are moving ahead on a proposal that would ensure President Joe Biden is on the state’s November ballot.
The Ohio House is set to vote Wednesday on hastily passed revisions to Senate Bill 92, a long-dormant elections bill, that would resolve a scheduling conflict that Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office previously warned would keep Biden off the state’s general-election ballot this year.
The revisions to SB92 would push back a state deadline to certify presidential candidates for the Nov. 5 general election from Aug. 5 until Aug. 23, according to House Speaker Jason Stephens. LaRose’s chief legal counsel warned Democrats last month that, unless some sort of action was taken, Biden would violate that deadline because he won’t be formally nominated until the Democratic National Convention is held between Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
The changes to SB92 would also allow the Democrats to be “a lot more flexible” about how they notify LaRose’s office about Biden’s nomination, said Stephens, a Lawrence County Republican.
“Hopefully this will take care of that issue without much fanfare,” Stephens told reporters Tuesday.
The House Government Oversight Committee folded the revisions into SB92 during a committee hearing Tuesday morning.
Cleveland.com reached out to a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman and other Ohio Senate Republicans to see if they support the changes and intend to also vote on them Wednesday. If the revised bill passes the legislature, it would then go to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.
As bills signed into law in Ohio don’t take effect for 90 days, LaRose’s office warned that lawmakers only have until this Friday to pass some sort of fix in time for it to take effect by Aug. 5.
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Democrat from suburban Columbus, told reporters Tuesday that there are “still a few more steps to get through” for SB92 to pass but that she was “glad” to see a bipartisan agreement to ensure that the president appears on Ohio’s ballot this fall.
Moving the certification deadline from 90 days before a general election (which, this year, is Aug. 5) to 74 days before the election (Aug. 23 this year), is “a little arbitrary,” Russo said.
“But it’s fine. It works for now,” she said, adding that the proposal’s specifics came out of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.
Presidential nominees from both major parties previously ran afoul of Ohio’s certification deadline in 2012 and 2020, leading lawmakers in each instance to pass measures pushing back the deadline just for that year.
Stephens and Russo each said last month that they want to pass a permanent change to state law so future presidential candidates don’t hit the same administrative snag. The changes in SB92, however, would only apply to the 2024 election.
