Democrats Change Convention to Help Joe Biden

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said Tuesday it will hold a virtual roll call to choose President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee ahead of the party's convention, a move to ensure that Biden can meet a deadline to appear on the Ohio ballot.

"Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree," DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement.

"But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own," he continued. "Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can't chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice."

The Context

Biden and Donald Trump are the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees following a series of primary wins and are headed for a rematch in November. Their first debate is set for June, with a second one in September.

What We Know

Ohio requires the certification of presidential nominees by political parties 90 days before the election. However, the Democratic National Convention, when Democrats will officially nominate Biden, is set after the deadline.

In response to the deadline concerns, the DNC said it will hold the virtual roll call ahead of the August 19 convention in Chicago and before Ohio's August 7 deadline to certify the ballot.

This is not the first time a virtual roll call has been held. One was called in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newsweek has reached out to Biden's campaign and the DNC via email for comment.

Views

In a Sunday opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Ohio's Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, criticized the Democratic Party's efforts to deal with the ballot deadline matter after he told Democrats that the certification deadline is 12 days before the convention.

"The Democratic Party's antics after its failure to get [President Biden] on the ballot in Ohio are both entertaining and hypocritical," he wrote. "Since 2020 the political left has decried perceived attempts to manipulate laws governing elections as threats to democracy. If you dared to question the electoral process—or worse, hired a lawyer to challenge it—you'd be politically persecuted as a traitor."

"Today's threat to democracy is apparently me. As Ohio's chief elections officer, I refuse to bend the rules to benefit a candidate," LaRose said.

Newsweek reached out to LaRose's office via email for comment.

Meanwhile, Justin Levitt, a former Biden White House adviser and law professor at Loyola Marymount University, took aim at LaRose for the deadline concerns and House and Senate proposals to change the certification deadline to put Biden on the ballot, which both failed.

"In addition to being an unprecedented distraction, this petty partisanship is bound to fail," Levitt told USA Today. "Both candidates will inevitably be on the ballot; the only real question is whether Ohio's legislators and secretary of state will feel any shame for lighting their constituents' tax dollars on fire in the meantime."

What's Next?

A DNC committee will meet next week to approve the virtual proceedings. All members will vote on the change sometime after that. Democrats have not yet set a date for the virtual roll call.

Update 5/28/24, 3 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.