Ohio law requires political parties to certify their candidates with the Secretary of State on or before 90 days prior to an election, but the Democratic National Convention where Biden will be officially nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate won’t take place until August 22, which is 75 days before the election.
The Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said she won't grant Biden any special exception from the law, and recommended that the Democratic Party find a legally acceptable remedy. The state legislature also isn't willing to attempt to change the state law in Biden's favor, she added.
Case Western Reserve University political science professor Jonathan Entin, who also used to be a law clerk for the late Ruth Ginsberg when she was a lower-level judge, told Sputnik the risk of Biden not appearing on the Ohio ballot is shocking.
"Everyone involved claims that Biden will appear on the Ohio ballot this fall, but so far the situation remains unresolved," Entin said. "The prospect that a major party's presidential candidate will not appear on the ballot is genuinely shocking - as is the unwillingness of the legislative leadership to resolve the problem quickly and without controversy."
However, Entin expects the Biden campaign to file a lawsuit soon that will likely be successful.
"It is also possible that we will see some sort of workaround in which the Democratic National Committee creates some kind of improvised certification before Ohio's August 7 deadline," Entin added.
University of Cincinnati Political Science Professor David Niven told Sputnik that he expects Biden will eventually end up on the ballot in Ohio but it will take some extraordinary effort to make it happen.
The Democratic Party could hold a pre-convention meeting to designate Biden as the nominee within the required timeline in order to qualify him for the ballot, Niven said.
If Democratic efforts fail, it will be devastating for the entire Democratic ticket in Ohio if Biden were left off the ballot, Niven said.
"Leaving the president off the ballot is simply intolerable for Democrats," Niven said. "Since the Republican-dominated state legislature in Ohio petulantly refused to pass a waiver, it will be up to the Democratic Party to find a mechanism to officially nominate President Biden before their scheduled convention."
Biden currently trails former President Donald Trump in the national polls by one point, according to an aggregation by RealClearPolitics.