How dare those mean Republicans seek to deny our president access to the ballot in Alabama and Ohio? It’s never been done in the history of the republic.
Oh, wait. Didn’t Colorado, Maine, and California Democrats look to deny Donald Trump a place on the ballot in those states? Why yes. Yes, they did.
Advertisement
But Trump is a Republican. And it would be unfair to deny Biden access to a state ballot because his campaign was stupid enough to schedule the party’s national convention after the legal deadline for candidates to register in Ohio and Alabama.
“While this issue with convention dates has occurred many times in the past, notably with the Alabama GOP in 2004, 2012, and 2020, it appears to only be a problem this year now that the Democrats’ convention is behind the deadline,” said the chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, Randy Kelley, in a statement.
Kelley just doesn’t get it. Two sides can play the lawfare game. And in the case of Biden’s ballot access, the law is 100% on the GOP’s side.
Is Kelley actually claiming that it’s unfair to deny Biden access to the ballot because Republicans waived the requirement in the past? This isn’t a contest for high school president. This is a contest for the presidency of the United States of America. It’s a game that’s being played for keeps.
Just ask the Democrats.
Publicly, the Biden campaign is expressing confidence that he will appear on the ballot in both states. But the situation has created new headaches for Democrats and stoked distrust with election officials over what has long been considered an apolitical process.
Advertisement
God bless the Washington Post. Was trying to deny Trump ballot access in Democratic states “apolitical”? Any Post reader above the age of five knows that’s a lie.
The Alabama GOP Secretary of State, Wes Allen, reminded Alabama Democrats that he “took an oath to administer Alabama elections in accordance with Alabama law, not to help run the Democratic party.”
But both Alabama and Allen have recent experience with this exact issue. When the GOP was in this situation, in 2020, state Republicans voted to relax this deadline to ensure then-President Donald Trump obtained ballot access.
That legislation passed unanimously, with Allen, who was a state legislator at the time, among the “yes” votes. That year, top officials with both the Republican Party and Democratic Party also sent Merrill’s office a “conditional” certification ahead of the convention stating their intention to nominate Trump and Biden respectively. Those conditional certifications were included in Merrill’s 2020 candidate certifications, which are posted on the secretary of state’s website.
In 2020, Joe Biden was in his “Can’t we all just get along” mode. Republicans felt compelled to follow along.
Advertisement
But now that the Republicans are in a total war with Democrats, there is absolutely no reason that the GOP has to play ball or play “fair.”
Of course, disenfranchising millions of Democrats in Ohio and Alabama might not be the best political play. And the chance for payback will be tempting for Democrats in those states.
But Republicans didn’t start the fire. And now that lawfare is a two-edged sword, perhaps Democrats would use less of it.