Could Joe Biden still be replaced on 2024 ballots? What to know

If President Joe Biden were to step aside as the Democratic nominee, his replacement could face challenges gaining access to ballots in certain states — though challenges would likely prove unsuccessful, experts said.

Biden has been facing mounting pressure to withdraw from the race following his performance in the June 27 presidential debate, in which he delivered halting responses that raised concerns about his age.

The Biden campaign has pushed back on calls for the 81-year-old president to step aside, arguing his lackluster performance resulted from jet lag and a cold. Biden himself maintains that he is the best option to defeat former President Donald Trump in November.

But, should he ultimately decide to step down, his successor could run up against state ballot deadlines and potential lawsuits, elections experts said.

States have varying deadlines for printing ballots, but generally they fall around the time of the Democratic and Republican conventions when the parties officially choose their nominees, Susan Ohmer, an emeritus professor at the University of Notre Dame, who has studied elections, said.

This year’s Democratic National Convention is set to be held in Chicago in late August.

If a new nominee — such as Vice President Kamala Harris or California Gov. Gavin Newsom — is chosen at the DNC, the party would “work vigorously” to get them on state ballots, Robert Shapiro, a professor of government at Columbia University, told McClatchy News.

“Normally the deadlines are far enough after the convention that this is doable,” Shapiro said.

Still, it’s likely that there would be “plenty” of legal challenges, Ohmer said. “The fact that we structure elections at the state level means there are many opportunities for lawsuits.”

The issue of ballot access has already come up in Ohio, where the deadline for printing ballots is August 7, well before the DNC convention, Ohmer said.

“Governor (Mike) DeWine called a special session to resolve that situation,” Ohmer said.

But, the DNC planned back in May to formally nominate Biden several weeks before the convention in a virtual session in order to circumvent the deadline.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has also pledged to initiate legal challenges should Biden step down.

“If the Biden family decides that President Biden will not run for re-election, the mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary by state,” Mike Howell, the director of the foundation’s Oversight Project, said in a statement. “There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.”

Wisconsin, for example, does not allow a candidate to withdraw from their ballot except in the event that they die, according to the statement. Georgia and Nevada also have “specific procedures for withdrawal.”

But, lawsuits aimed at keeping a Biden successor off state ballots are likely to be unsuccessful, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank, told the Associated Press.

“This is very clear constitutionally that this is in the party’s purview,” Kamarck told the outlet. “The business of nominating someone to represent a political party is the business of the political party.”

In the past, courts have steered clear of interfering with political primaries so long as they were not violating constitutional rights, Karmarck told the outlet.

“I never discount the possibilities of challenges these days, but I do not think that they will be successful if Biden or Trump were to step aside,” Paul Beck, a professor emeritus of politics at the Ohio State University, told McClatchy News.

And, in the event that the new nominee is not listed on a state ballot, “there could be a write-in campaign, which would be highly unusual but plausible,” Shapiro said.

Some write-in campaigns have proven successful. Biden won this year’s Democratic primary in New Hampshire via a write-in campaign.

This story was originally published July 8, 2024 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Could Joe Biden still be replaced on 2024 ballots? What to know."