The Ohio state senate passed a legislative fix to Joe Biden’s ballot access problem on Friday, ensuring that the president will be on all 50 state ballots in November.
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It wouldn’t have been necessary if Biden and his campaign had respected Ohio law and scheduled the Democratic nomination of Biden before the August 7 deadline. Instead, they arrogantly assumed that the Republican legislature would fix their problem for them.
This they did. The Republican senate moved the filing deadline from 90 days prior to the election to 65 days which falls after the Democratic Convention in Chicago that begins August 19.
But the holdup was caused by Democrats insisting that a ban on foreign money in ballot initiatives was unnecessary even after it was discovered that Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire, donated $200 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a dark money radical left group that gave to the pro-abortion initiative on the Ohio ballot.
Eventually, the GOP prevailed and got their foreign money ban for ballot initiatives.
“Today’s action echoes what we already knew: Since the beginning of this process, Ohio Republicans have been playing partisan games and trying to chip away at our democracy, while Democrats have been defending Ohioans’ right to vote,” DNC spokesperson Hannah Muldavin said. “Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states, and we are already taking action to make sure that’s the case, regardless of Ohio Republicans’ shenanigans.”
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Just who is chipping away at our democracy? Democrats call the ban on foreign money a “red herring” despite the tens of millions of dollars given by a foreigner to the pro-abortion initiative.
Ohio Republicans didn’t want to help Democrats put Biden on the ballot without getting something in return. To that end, they linked a ballot fix to a ban on foreign nationals giving to issue campaigns.
GOP lawmakers began pushing for the measure after a progressive dark money group poured millions into Ohio ballot campaigns, including the abortion rights amendment approved by voters last year. The group, Sixteen Thirty Fund, has received over $200 million in donations from a Swiss billionaire, the Associated Press reported.
“Unfortunately, it has become increasingly evident that decisions intended to be made by Ohioans are being unduly influenced by foreign governments, pouring millions of dollars into our state,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said in a statement posted to social media Tuesday. “To prevent foreign interests from manipulating our government for their own sinister agendas, foreign money must be barred from Ohio elections.”
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In fact, foreign money was already banned. But the loophole that allowed the Swiss billionaire to contribute to a dark money group that ended up funding the abortion ballot initiative needed closing even though Democrats didn’t like it.
The Biden ballot imbroglio didn’t need to happen. There could have been better communication between the campaign and the Ohio legislature. That the Biden campaign didn’t bother with such trivial matters is on them, not Ohio Republicans.
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