Biden may now miss deadline to appear on Alabama presidential ballot – as well as Ohio

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President Joe Biden may now miss the deadline to appear on Alabama’s presidential ballot, election officials in the state have said, citing the timing of the Democratic National Convention.

Both the president and the vice president may be certified as the nominees of their party past the deadline.

Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen said on Tuesday in a letter to Alabama Democrats and the Democratic National Committee that according to state law, the parties must provide a “certificate of nomination” for the president and vice president” at least 82 days before the election on 5 November – 15 August at the latest.

The Democratic convention, where the party will officially select its nominees, starts on 19 August.

Mr Allen said in his letter that he’ll be “unable to certify the names of the Democratic Party’s candidates for President and Vice President for ballot preparation for the 2024 general election” if his office doesn’t receive “a valid certificate of nomination from the Democratic Party following its convention by the statutory deadline”.

This comes after the office of the Ohio secretary of state sent a similar message last week. The state also has a certification deadline before the Democratic convention.

The chief legal counsel for the Ohio secretary of state told the Democrats that the Democratic National Committee would have to change the dates of its convention or the Ohio legislature would need to create an exemption to the state’s rules.

“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” the Biden campaign said. “State officials have the ability to grant provisional ballot access certification prior to the conclusion of presidential nominating conventions. In 2020 alone, states like Alabama, Illinois, Montana, and Washington all allowed provisional certification for Democratic and Republican nominees.”

The office of the Alabama secretary of state said in a statement to CNN that “Under Alabama law, there are no ‘provisional certifications’ for candidates. All candidates must comply with current Alabama law to gain ballot access”.

The Republican legislature in Alabama passed a law in 2020 to “accommodate” the timing of the Republican National Convention, changing the deadline from 82 days to 75 days before the election. When former President Donald Trump was nominated as his party’s nominee in 2020, the convention began on 24 August and the election was on 3 November – a span of 71 days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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