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President Joe Biden could be left off Alabama ballots for the 2024 election.
On Tuesday (April 9), Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) warned that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will miss the deadline to be certified as nominees in the state for the November election due to the current timing of the Democratic Nation Convention, per CNN. The Democratic convention, where the party's nominees for president and vice president are officially selected, is set to occur on August 19.
In a letter to Alabama Democrats and the Democratic National Committee, Allen cited a state law that requires parties to provide a “certificate of nomination for President and Vice President” at least 82 days before the November 5 election, which would be August 15, four days before the Democratic convention.
“If this Office has not received a valid certificate of nomination from the Democratic Party following its convention by the statutory deadline, I will 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,” Allen wrote in the letter.
A Biden campaign spokesperson maintained that the president "will be on the ballot in all 50 states.”
“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 campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
Alabama’s secretary of state’s office responded to the statement from Biden's campaign, saying “Under Alabama law, there are no ‘provisional certifications’ for candidates. All candidates must comply with current Alabama law to gain ballot access.”
Allen's warning follows a similar one from the office of Ohio’s secretary of state last week. The chief legal counsel for the Ohio secretary of state told Democrats that the DNC needs to move up its convention or the state Legislature would have to create an exemption to Ohio's certification deadline requirement.
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