Republicans have floated lawsuits to force Biden’s name onto the ballot. They’re not likely to succeed in Pa.
Republicans are floating legal challenges to keep President Joe Biden on the ballot, but those arguments are unlikely to succeed in Pennsylvania or other states.
President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend his reelection campaign is unlikely to have any serious implications for election officials in Pennsylvania.
Though Republicans have been threatening court challenges to force Biden’s name onto the ballot since before he dropped out and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, those suits are unlikely to hold water in Pennsylvania, or anywhere else in the country.
Furthermore, election officials in Pennsylvania have not yet begun preparing November ballots, which means Biden’s exit from the race came early enough to avoid delays or administrative headaches.
Will Democrats nominate a candidate in time for them to be on Pennsylvania’s ballot?
While Democrats do not gather for the Democratic National Convention until Aug. 19, the party is prepared to finalize its nominees for president through a virtual vote before Aug. 7.
That is well before major party presidential candidates need to be finalized in Pennsylvania.
The state has an Aug. 8 deadline for third-party and independent candidates to submit paperwork to get on the November ballot. But that deadline does not apply to major party presidential candidates. State law allows the parties to set their own rules, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. However, the ballot must must be finalized in time for counties to send mail ballots out by Oct. 22.
The Democratic National Committee has set a goal of having a candidate before Aug. 7 to avoid any state-level GOP legal challenges to their nominee.
When does Pennsylvania start printing ballots?
Pennsylvania counties can begin sending voters their mail ballots Sept. 16.
State law requires all mail ballots to be sent by Oct. 22.
The printing and mailing of ballots, however, could be delayed if legal challenges to any candidate in any party are still active. This could include GOP challenges attempting to force Biden’s name onto the ballot in the race against former President Donald Trump. It could also include challenges to the validity of third-party or independent candidates who have to gather signatures to gain ballot access.
Would legal challenges hold water?
If Republicans sought to keep Biden’s name on the ballot in Pennsylvania or other states, legal experts say the challenges are unlikely to hold water.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) argued that in some states, changing the candidate in this stage would be illegal.
“Fourteen million Democrats voted to make Joe Biden the nominee so it would be wrong and I think unlawful in accordance with some of these states laws for a handful of people to go in a back room and switch it out because they don’t like the candidate any longer,” Johnson said.
State and national laws allow political parties to set their own rules for presidential candidate nomination.
David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said that both political parties have well-established rules for a scenario where a candidate drops out after individual state primaries had taken place.
Biden, he noted, was never the official nominee for the party and wouldn’t have been until after a vote took place.
“These claims are less than frivolous,” he said of floated GOP challenges.