Published on June 26, 2024, 12:36 am

Swapping out President Joe Biden for another contender on the Nov. 5 ballot would likely prompt a slew of legal challenges, as foreseen by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. This owes to the myriad state laws that layout what political parties need to do to interchange their presidential candidate.

According to Mike Howell, the executive director of the Oversight Project, if there is a significant event at an upcoming debate or similar event that puts Biden in an unfavorable light, the chance of a replacement increases. A pivotal debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump will be hosted by CNN.

Howell emphasizes that there are established rules regarding election integrity in various states and any cover-up attempts by a party won’t exempt them from these rules. In fact, he calls attention to Biden’s declining health claiming it has been veiled under executive privilege with incidents such as the retraction of potentially revealing audio tapes from special counsel Rober Hur’s interviews with him.

Findings from Hur’s investigation portrayed Biden as “elderly” and dealing with memory loss raising concerns whether he should continue in office. His credibility has been further hurdled following instances indicating cognitive decline like wandering off during G7 summit and appearing disoriented onstage after a fundraiser.

Against this backdrop, questions arise around how nomination processes would affect respective state laws as delegates consider substitutes for Biden at the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August. Sam Dewey, counsel for Heritage’s Oversight Project clarifies there are not one but two questions; one is around who gets chosen as the party’s nominee, second pertains to eligibility for getting on the ballot–clearly nominating a substitute doesn’t guarantee access†to ballot entries– something DNC is grappling over Robert Kennedy’s case.

Elaborating further Dewey explains even if superdelegates and delegates chose someone else instead of Biden like Vice president or Hillary Clinton it would not guarantee access†to ballots unlike being nominated by a party thus opening room for litigations.

Moreover, the Oversight Project has issued a memo defining the rules for replacing presidential candidates currently under review by top election officers from all states. In crucial states such as Georgia and Nevada it is well defined how to withdraw a presidential candidate from the ballot while in Wisconsin such change of name is only permissible if the candidate has passed away.

However, criteria vary based on timeline and other triggering events–What kind of withdrawal (due to death, medical or other reason), exactly when before election day etc., could impact whether the candidate’s name remains on ballot or not leaving scope for post-election disputes. For instance certain states like South Carolina neither allow nor recognize political reasons for withdrawals. Precedents in this area are limited narrowing down to 31†states that adhere†to party rules and nominating committees if a nominee opts out of running requests.

Interestingly enough though, these laws are open to challenges that are seen only as marginally beneficial at best as shared by an Oversight Project memo. As counterpoint, The Biden administration has denied any health issues that prevent him from serving another term with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refuting recent uncomplimentary videos on Biden branding them as “cheap fakes”. Supporting this Jill Biden commends her husband lauding his age an advantage enabling him to be an effective president.