Alabama lawmakers advance bills to ensure President Biden’s name is on the election ballot
By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press
Alabama lawmakers advanced legislation Wednesday to ensure President Joe Biden’s name will appear on the state’s November ballot, mirroring accommodations made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.
Legislative committees in the Alabama House of Representatives and Senate approved identical bills that would push back the state’s certification deadline from 82 days to 74 days before the general election in order to accommodate the date of Democrats’ nominating convention.
The bills now move to to the full chambers. Alabama has one of the earliest candidate certification deadlines in the country which has caused difficulties for whichever political party has the later convention date that year.
“We want to make sure every citizen in the state of Alabama has the opportunity to vote for the candidate of his or her choice,” Democratic Sen. Merika Coleman, the sponsor of the Senate bill, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The issue of Biden’s ballot access has arisen in Alabama and Ohio as Republican secretaries of state warned that certification deadlines fall before the Democratic National Convention is set to begin on Aug. 19. The Biden campaign has asked the two states to accept provisional certification, arguing that has been done in past elections.
The Republican election chiefs said they don’t have authority and will enforce the deadlines.
Democrats proposed the two Alabama bills, but the legislation moved out of committee with support from Republicans who hold a lopsided majority in the Alabama Legislature. The bills were approved with little discussion. However, two Republicans who spoke in favor of the bill called it an issue of fairness.
Republican Rep. Bob Fincher, chairman of the committee that heard the House bill, said this is “not the first time we’ve run into this problem” and the state made allowances.
“I’d like to think that if the shoe was on the other foot, that this would be taken care of. And I think that Alabamians have a deep sense of fairness when it comes to politics and elections,” Republican Sen. Sam Givhan said during the committee meeting.
Trump faced the same issue in Alabama in 2020. The Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature in 2020 passed legislation to change the certification deadline for the 2020 election. The bill stated that the change was made “to accommodate the dates of the 2020 Republican National Convention.”
However, an attorney representing the Biden campaign and DNC, wrote in a letter to Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen that it was provisional certification that allowed Trump on the ballot in 2020, because there were still problems with the GOP date even with the new 2020 deadline.
Allen has maintained he does not have the authority to accept provisional certification. Allen was not secretary of state in 2020.
(Copyright 2024. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
