Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel said nothing in Michigan election law prohibits Democrats from placing a new presidential candidate on the November ballot.
“Presidential candidates are certified to appear on Michigan’s general election ballot as a result of the outcome of their respective party’s nominating conventions,” the pair, both Democrats, said in a statement. “Under Michigan election law, the name of a party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees must be delivered to the department of state from the political parties within one business day of the conclusion of the party’s convention.”
Republicans concluded their convention last week in Milwaukee and nominated former President Donald Trump for president and Ohio Sen. JD Vance for vice president.
Although Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary in February, he has not yet been formally nominated for the office by his party. Neither has his running mate Vice President Kamala Harris, who is considered the favorite to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.
The statement from Benson and Nessel comes amid discussion in other places about legal challenges to removing Biden from the ballot.
In the run-up to Biden’s poor performance in the June 27 debate with Trump, speculation had already begun about replacing Biden at the top of the ticket.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in a Sunday interview with ABC News that every state has its own laws and rules on how candidates are placed on the ballot and there could be legal obstacles to switching out Biden for another candidate.
Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project at the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote in June that “There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states,” related to that issue, though other election law experts dismissed the idea.
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com or on X @jwisely.
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