CLEVELAND — There are questions about what an Ohio General Assembly special session can accomplish when it comes to getting President Joe Biden on Ohio’s ballot.
The questions have come up because the Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic presidential candidate is typically officially nominated, is not scheduled to start until after Ohio's Aug. 7 candidate certification deadline has passed.
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY claims being made, we checked with:
- Governor Mike DeWine's office,
- The Ohio Legislative Service Commission,
- Ohio House Rep. Bill Seitz,
- and the Democratic National Committee.
CLAIM 1
When Governor Mike DeWine invoked Article III, Section 8 of the Ohio Constitution to call for a special session of the Ohio General Assembly on May 23 to address the certification deadline issue, he said this:
"This is called in the statute an extraordinary action, an extraordinary situation. This is an extraordinary situation."
THE EXPLANATION
Ohio Legislative Service Commission research shows that a special session of the Ohio General assembly has only been called 27 times in the last 89 years, and the last time was in 2004. This means that the governor didn’t even have to call a special legislative session during the COVID-19 pandemic.
THE ANSWER
Based on these facts, we can VERIFY that yes, calling a special session of the General Assembly is "an extraordinary situation" in Ohio.
CLAIM 2
Next, there's a question about whether the special session of the Ohio legislature that started on May 28 is guaranteed to ensure Biden is on Ohio's ballot in November.
THE EXPLANATION
Republican Ohio House Representative Bill Seitz has said publicly that he’s skeptical that legislation ensuring Biden will be on the Ohio ballot will pass during this special session, because he doesn’t think enough Republicans will vote for a fix in the Ohio House.
Ohio Legislative Service Commission research further shows that in the 27 times that special sessions has been called before, 7 those sessions did not result in a law being passed. In fact, nothing was passed in 6 of the most recent special sessions. This shows that even though the governor can call a special session, the governor cannot compel the legislature to act.
THE ANSWER
So here we can VERIFY that, no, this special session is not guaranteed to fix this issue.
CLAIM 3
Despite everything discussed above, leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties are saying Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio.
THE EXPLANATION
Here’s the latest from DNC Chair Jaime Harrison:
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own. Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that whether it happens through legislative action in a special session, or because the DNC nominates the president before Ohio’s current August 7 deadline, as of now, Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio.