CONCORD — President Joe Biden is out of the 2024 presidential race. Is it too late for a new candidate to get on the general election ballot in New Hampshire?
The short answer is no, according to Anna Sventek, communications director at the New Hampshire secretary of state's office.
The Democratic National Convention is set to run from August 19 to 22 in Chicago. Once that happens, the convention chair will certify to New Hampshire the individual nominated by the convention to be that party’s candidate for President of the United States.
Secretary of State David Scanlan said general election ballots are usually printed 10-14 days after the state primary, which is Sept. 10, to comply with a federal requirement that absentee ballots for military and overseas citizens are to be issued no later than 45 days before the general election.
“Once that event takes place, we immediately start the process of preparing general election ballots,” said Scanlan. “So, we really need to know by 10 days to two weeks after the primary election who the candidate is going to be so we can start printing that name on the ballot.”
It makes no difference to New Hampshire’s secretary of state's office who that candidate is, Scanlan confirmed.
According to New Hampshire Election Law Chapter 667:21 , each political party must certify the names of the presidential electors to the secretary of state no later than the last Tuesday of October.
That last Tuesday, Oct. 29, is also technically the last day the secretary of state may receive the name of a substitute candidate to be placed on the ballot and the last day for the secretary of state to deliver general election ballots to clerks, states the 2024 New Hampshire Political Calendar .
However, Scanlan said, that date is really too late as the ballots will have already been printed. While that provision does exist, it would only occur if there was the death of a candidate, or a candidate somehow became disqualified.
“There is a point in time where reprinting ballots in close proximity to the general elections is just not possible,” said Scanlan. “In that case, the name of the original candidate would remain on the ballot.”
With the DNC finishing over two weeks before the state primary, Scanlan “fully expects” to receive the name of the nominated candidate with plenty of time to print the ballots with the nominated candidate’s name.
New Hampshire's delegates pledged to Kamala Harris
Scanlan said what’s most important is who the candidate is that is nominated by the party convention. When the states have their presidential primaries, he said, they’re actually voting for the delegates that will participate in the convention to cast votes to nominate the presidential candidate for that party.
New Hampshire’s slate of 25 Democratic delegates were originally pledged to Biden. But when he dropped out of the race Sunday, they were released to vote for whoever they wanted. On Sunday evening, they unanimously pledged their support for Vice President Kamala Harris, the leading candidate to replace Biden.
More: Portsmouth's Mary Carey Foley sad to see her friend Joe Biden exit race
What if a candidate is nominated before the DNC?
While the DNC dates are early enough for New Hampshire’s ballot rules, a few other states like Washington, Ohio , and Alabama have signaled that the convention’s later dates may pose a problem for their states’ earlier ballot deadlines.
To avoid these issues, the Democratic National Committee is planning to hold a virtual nomination ahead of Ohio’s original Aug. 7 deadline . However, Scanlan said his office would wait until he received the certification from the chair of the convention, which he expects to come shortly after the in-person convention concludes on Aug. 22.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: How can Kamala Harris (or any Democrat) replace Joe Biden on NH 2024 election ballot?
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