The Biden campaign insists the issue will be resolved. Frank LaRose, the Republican secretary of state in Ohio, said he would bar the president over what is normally a minor procedural issue.
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The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus last month. The General Assembly did not act to resolve a ballot issue before adjourning on Wednesday.
The Ohio General Assembly adjourned on Wednesday without addressing an issue that the state’s top elections official said would prevent President Biden from being placed on the ballot there, escalating a partisan clash that could result in the president not being on the ballot in all 50 states in November.
Frank LaRose, the Republican secretary of state, has said that he plans to exclude Mr. Biden from the ballot because he will be officially nominated after a deadline for certifying presidential nominees on the ballot. This is usually a minor procedural issue, and states have almost always offered a quick solution to ensure that major presidential candidates remain on the ballot.
But a legislative fix, which would push back the certification deadline to accommodate the late date of the Democratic National Convention, stalled out this month as Republicans in the Ohio Senate tacked on a partisan measure that would ban foreign donations to state ballot initiatives. Mr. LaRose has previously said that passing the ban is the price that Democrats must pay to ensure that Mr. Biden is on the ballot, and that he would otherwise enforce the law as written.
Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said the campaign was “assessing next steps accordingly.”
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” Mr. Lutvak said, adding, “Election after election, states across the country have acted in line with the bipartisan consensus and taken the necessary steps to ensure the presidential nominees from both parties will be on the ballot. And this election is no different.”
Ohio, an increasingly Republican state, passed temporary extensions to its certification deadline for President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 and for President Donald J. Trump in 2020.
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Source: nytimes.com
