Democrats rush to decide Biden’s political future before it plunges into murky legal territory

The Democratic pressure campaign to convince President Joe Biden to get off the ticket is rushing to get ahead of deadlines that would turn a political fight into a legal one, due to state laws on ballot certification and vacancies.

Democrats are still on course to formally nominate the president again during the first week of August at a virtual delegate roll call vote before their convention later that month. And while party rules provide a clear path for Democrats to replace Biden before or after that vote, a decision to replace him for political reasons later than that gets into thorny territory, effectively becoming a lost cause by early September.

In short, Democrats may have only days after their convention to finalize their nominee or else they risk being left off the ballot in key states, risking key Electoral College votes and their ability to win the presidency along with it. By early September, trying to put a new presidential candidate on the ballot is no longer solely up to a national party once state laws on ballot certification and ballot vacancies go into effect.

“The sooner it happens, the less fraught the situation will be,” said Rebecca Green, an associate director of law and co-director of the Election Law Program at the William & Mary Law School.

“It is generally the case that parties have flexibility to replace candidates until the ballots are printed,” Green, who is also a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, continued. After that, she added, “things get more difficult because you’re running up against state laws.”

Many state deadlines aren’t until closer to the election, and many state laws are more flexible governing vacancies on a ticket in the case of a serious illness or