In an escalating partisan clash, President Joe Biden's name may be excluded from the ballot in the state of Ohio for the upcoming November election. The state's top election official, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, warned that Democrats are submitting their candidate's nomination too late to meet Ohio's ballot access laws.

Ohio requires political parties to officially confirm their presidential and vice-presidential nominees to the elections chief at least 90 days before the general election, which means Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris must be certified as the Democratic candidates by August 7th. However, Biden will not formally be named as the party's candidate until the Democratic National Convention, scheduled from August 19th to 22nd.

This conflict between the certification deadline and the party's nominating convention has historically been resolved quietly. Nevertheless, LaRose stated that unless the Democratic Party complies with the statutory deadline, he will instruct election boards to prepare ballots that do not include the Democratic nominees for president and vice president.

This situation poses a challenge for Biden, as former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, will not face the same issue. The Republican Party's national convention is scheduled from July 15th to 18th, well ahead of Ohio's deadline.

While similar issues with certification deadlines have been rectified in the past, provisional changes made in Washington state and Alabama exempting Biden, and exceptions in Ohio for Mitt Romney in 2012 and Trump in 2020, Ohio's Republican House speaker has stated that the legislature will not make a legislative fix to the issue.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a moderate Republican who has distanced himself from the party's Trump-friendly wing, has called on lawmakers to act similarly. However, without legislative remedy from state Republicans, legal action may be sought by the Biden campaign to ensure the president's inclusion on the ballot.

Despite the challenges, the Biden campaign remains confident that the issue will be resolved without drama. A campaign spokesperson, Charles Lutvak, stated that "Joe Biden will be on the ballot in all 50 states," emphasizing that states across the country have historically taken necessary steps to ensure the inclusion of presidential nominees from both parties.

The fight over Ohio's ballot access comes as the state has shifted increasingly conservative, with Trump winning Ohio in both the 2016 and 2020 elections by roughly 8% margins against Hillary Clinton and Biden, respectively. This partisan clash follows a similar incident earlier this year when officials in Colorado, Illinois, and Maine ruled that Trump was barred from appearing on their presidential ballots under a Civil War-era insurrection clause. However, the US Supreme Court overturned this decision in March, ruling that Trump must be included on the ballots of those three states.

As the legislative fix remains elusive in Ohio's case, it is certain that the battle for Biden's ballot access may require legal intervention. Ohio's status as a swing state in the past increases the significance of this clash, as the outcome may impact the president's path to victory in the November election.