# Ohio plans to remove President Biden from the November ballot **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 23, 2024, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941 "2024-05-23T03:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/21 "2024-05-23T14:07:33Z")
Ohio has abortion on the ballot. If you look at trends versus polls, that may spell trouble for Republicans state-wide. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/22 "2024-05-23T14:10:06Z")
Couldn’t Biden just run as an Independent in Ohio? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/23 "2024-05-23T14:18:58Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > Ohio has abortion on the ballot That was last year. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/24 "2024-05-23T14:21:05Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Couldn’t Biden just run as an Independent in Ohio? Yes, and that’s the most likely outcome if there’s no solution in the legislature or the DNC. You only need 5,000 signatures to get on as an independent candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/25 "2024-05-23T14:24:10Z")
I retract my previous statement as I was unable to tell the difference between a 3 and a 4, or pay attention to really anything in a state so backwards it supports Gym Jordan. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/26 "2024-05-23T14:55:32Z")
Ohio also. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/27 "2024-05-23T21:45:52Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > If Biden is popular enough to carry Ohio, he’ll be popular enough to win without it. Problem with write ins: they might, for instance, decide to count votes for Joe Biden, Joe Biden Jr., Joseph Biden, Joseph Biden Jr., Joseph Robinette Biden, and Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. as votes for six different people. (I had to look up his full legal name, and I read a lot of politics. And I’m still uncertain about the Jr., which might have dropped off as I presume his father’s no longer alive.) ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/28 "2024-05-23T23:43:58Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > If Biden is popular enough to carry Ohio, he’ll be popular enough to win without it. Probably. But what states are swing states is not written in stone. Also, with Biden off the ballot, many of his potential voters, who only care about the presidential race, will not bother to vote. And Sherrod Brown loses. Or maybe Brown wins, but other local Democrats will lose. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/29 "2024-05-24T00:12:23Z")
It appears Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has called a special session of the legislature to pass a bill allowing the exception for President Biden that has been extended to other presidential candidates in the past. > “It is important that when Ohioans cast their vote” for president, Mr. DeWine said, “they have the opportunity to cast a vote for either of the major-party candidates for those offices.” NYT gift link to the full article. I hope he has the influence to pull this off. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/30 "2024-05-24T00:30:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I disagree. SCOTUS has always- even this court- said that the voters must have their say. Yup. And they’ll say here that the voters must have their say in electing state legislators, and if they don’t like this decision, it’s their responsibility to vote in new state legislators. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/31 "2024-05-24T00:52:50Z")
Good for DeWine. ---
**Author:** ![Mnemnosyne](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mnemnosyne/32/3347_2.png) [@Mnemnosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemnosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/32 "2024-05-24T01:23:09Z")
As someone currently living in Ohio, I’m kinda of two minds on this. On the one hand, it feels outrageous to be denied the opportunity to vote for either of the two real presidential candidates. On the other hand, the rules are the rules, and for either party to just flout them and insist an exception be made seems ridiculous. The fact that apparently this _routinely_ happens and states actually allow exceptions regularly just shows that the parties routinely ignore the rules. Is there any goddamn reason why the democratic party _can’t_ just comply with the fucking rule, other than they couldn’t be goddamn bothered to schedule their convention at a time that does? The fact that they (and apparently also the Republicans 4 years ago too, so it’s not just the democrats) need this exception simply indicates a lack of respect or observance for the state’s laws. It says from both of them, ‘we, the party, are more important than your entire state’s laws, and we expect you to change things to suit us, rather than following the laws that have been well-known for however long this law has existed for’. I do not generally like making exceptions to the rules; I’m generally of the mind that all rules all laws, should be enforced to the fullest extent, so that we can feel maximum pain from them, and _remove the rule_ if we find it to be too problematic, not make exceptions. I don’t know what I feel like the right solution is this time. Maybe since Biden doesn’t have much of a real chance of winning Ohio this year, enforce the rule so that it sends the message ‘no, seriously…pay attention to the rules’? But I don’t like that cause if there’s even a snowball’s chance in hell of Biden winning, I don’t want it taken away due to procedural issues. The mistake was making an exception the first time this happened, and then letting it become a routine thing. If the first time a party flouted the rules the state just went ‘oh…too bad, you should’ve paid attention to the rules’ you can bet they would never have pulled that shit again! ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/33 "2024-05-24T01:26:19Z")
I had always heard that states leave ballot spaces open for the Democratic nominee, Republican nominee and major 3rd parties registered in the state’s nominees and in a situation like this they just fill in the blank. I guess that was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/34 "2024-05-24T01:34:20Z")
> [@Mnemnosyne](#): > > On the other hand, the rules are the rules, and for either party to just flout them and insist an exception be made seems ridiculous. “The rules are the rules” is the sort of principle that gets used against people all the time - people like protestors or minorities or whatever. Sometimes the rules are dumb and need to be changed. And in this case, it was an incredibly stupid rule enacted very recently. The current Ohio rule was adopted in 2010 - when it increased the deadline from 60 to 90 days. Note that as far back as 1956 (!), both parties’ conventions would not have allowed sufficient time under the current 90 day rule, so this isn’t exactly a problem Ohio lawmakers should have been shocked by. At the time of adoption, they had 50+ years (!!) of examples to know it would be an issue. And indeed, in the 3 Presidential elections held since, both parties needed exceptions twice (!!!) and there’s yet to be an election where at least one party did not need an exception made. The right solution is to go back in time and tell the lawmakers they were doing something dumb. Short a time machine, the next best is to allow the exception here and/or amend the rule into something more sensible without playing political games with it. ---
**Author:** ![Mnemnosyne](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mnemnosyne/32/3347_2.png) [@Mnemnosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemnosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/35 "2024-05-24T01:42:32Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > “The rules are the rules” is the sort of principle that gets used against people all the time - people like protestors or minorities or whatever. Sometimes the rules are dumb and need to be changed. This is **exactly** why I am generally in favor of enforcing them completely and never ever making exceptions. If exceptions are made, then you are at the mercy of the enforcers benevolence in choosing not to enforce it against you. Always enforcing all laws to the maximum extent means that if the rule is bad and causes these problems, it forces society to confront it and (hopefully) change it. That said, with that additional knowledge on the history of this particular rule, yeah…it’s goddamn stupid to have been implemented in the first place, and should be changed. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/36 "2024-05-24T01:48:20Z")
It gets worse when you see why they’re suddenly insistent on trying to enforce this law; > [@](#): > > A legislative fix, which would have pushed 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… > > Republicans in the Ohio Senate advanced a bill that would resolve the issue but attached a rider that would ban foreign money in state ballot initiatives, which Republicans in the state blamed for the passage last year of a constitutional amendment enshrining access to abortion in the state. IOW, they were trying to strongarm state Democrats into a position where they’d be able to ban abortion again. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/37 "2024-05-24T01:54:55Z")
> [@Mnemnosyne](#): > > I do not generally like making exceptions to the rules; I’m generally of the mind that all rules all laws, should be enforced to the fullest extent, so that we can feel maximum pain from them, and _remove the rule_ if we find it to be too problematic, not make exceptions. As for rules that could result in going to jail, I think the great majority of us would be jailbirds, if not convicted felons, if all rules were enforced. Also, if Biden is kept off the ballot, who is held accountable? The Democratic Party official who negotiated the dates with the Chicago convention facility? Not at all. Voters, and downballot Democrats, who had nothing to do with convention scheduling, will suffer. When there as no criminal intent, allowances should be made. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/38 "2024-05-24T02:19:41Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > NYT gift link to the full article. This is not working for me: does it work for everyone else? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/39 "2024-05-24T02:23:05Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Republicans in the Ohio Senate advanced a bill that would resolve the issue but attached a rider that would ban foreign money in state ballot initiatives, which Republicans in the state blamed for the passage last year of a constitutional amendment enshrining access to abortion in the state. > > IOW, they were trying to strongarm state Democrats into a position where they’d be able to ban abortion again. Or where they think they’d be able to. The idea that the majority of people in Ohio don’t want abortion banned, foreign money or no foreign money, is apparently foreign to them. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941/40 "2024-05-24T02:23:38Z")
I’m a rules guy and get really annoyed when people think they don’t apply to them. Yet, in this case, both sides have routinely not followed the rules at different times in the past and exceptions have been made. The fact Ohio GOP legislators want to make an issue of it this time with Biden is a clear case of trying to screw over the Democrats because they can and that is unacceptable. I’m not sure how MAGAty the Ohio legislature happens to be it sure looks like something DJT and his minions would encourage. I’m just happy Mike DeWine is a stand up guy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-plans-to-remove-president-biden-from-the-november-ballot/1001941.md?page=3)