First, we learned that President Joe Biden's spot on the Ohio ballot was in danger and analyzed how that might play out. We still don't even have a definitive answer to that question, but an almost identical situation has now cropped up in Alabama. The Alabama Secretary of State, a Republican, has informed the Alabama Democratic Party Chairman, letting him know that the deadline for certification of candidate names on the ballot for November falls four days before the DNC is set to begin in Chicago. The rules in Alabama appear to allow for some provisional options to avoid this issue, but Wes Allen, the Secretary of State, appears to be taking a hard line on the question for now. (Associated Press)

President Joe Biden could be left off the ballot in Alabama, the state’s elections chief said Tuesday, because the state’s certification deadline comes several days before the Democratic Party’s convention.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, made the statement Tuesday, a day after a similar concern was raised in Ohio that Biden could be left off the ballot in that state.

Allen sent a letter to Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley saying that the state’s Aug. 15 certification deadline is four days before the Democratic National Convention is set to begin. Allen indicated that Biden’s name will not appear on the ballot unless the deadline is met.

To be clear, just as we discussed in the Ohio case, the fault for this mess lies with the DNC. Somebody there approved the date of the convention without finding out if it would run afoul of the submission deadlines in all of the states. If they had scheduled the convention for early July, they likely wouldn't have had any of these problems. Yes, they would have needed to work with some of the states to potentially move up their primaries a bit, but with enough advance notice, that could have been done. Also, while the decisions were being made, it was still not entirely clear whether or not Biden might drop out and they wanted more time to scramble for a replacement.

With that said, the Democrats are correct in pointing out that there is a rather simple way to address this. The rules allow them to submit a provisional ballot certification in time for the deadline and then finalize them after the convention vote. In 2020, several states did precisely that for both GOP and Democrat nominees. 

In terms of the political optics, it's not a very good look to ignore an available option to address what amounts to little more than a technicality and try to effectively "cancel" someone in this fashion. Most of these rules were established back when ballot paperwork had to be filled out by hand and then physically transported to a central office for filing and approval. It's 2024 now and it can all be done electronically with the signed documents catching up afterward. But the interparty divisions and hostility have probably reached the point where people aren't so concerned about political optics.

However, those optics could be particularly vexing in this specific case because of the ongoing challenges faced by Donald Trump. Republicans across the board have correctly decried Democrats' efforts to keep him off the ballot in various places as blatant attempts at election interference. Would not an attempt to then keep Joe Biden off the ballot via an easily corrected technicality be the same thing? If the Alabama Secretary of State moves ahead with his current position it will simply reek of hypocrisy. And it's not as if Biden was going to carry Alabama to begin with. Trump carried the state by more than 25 points in 2020 and Biden is even less popular today. This is all truly much ado about almost nothing.