Five States Have Deadlines for Certification of Presidential Nominees of Qualified Parties Earlier than September 1

The 2024 Democratic national convention dates are August 19-22. There are five states that require qualified parties to certify the names of their presidential nominees earlier than September 1: California August 22; Montana August 21; Oklahoma August 22; Virginia August 23; Washington August 20.

If the Democratic Party decides to use the convention itself to choose a presidential nominee, and that process takes more than a day, there could be problems with some of the states listed above, especially Washington. In the past the Washington Secretary of State has accepted provision certification, but that might not work if there is no provisional certification. Provisional certification only works if it is possible to predict who the nominee will be.

In my opinion, the Washington state deadline is unconstitutional. Constitutional challenges to early deadlines for candidates to get on ballots are adjudicated under the principles of Anderson v Celebrezze. Lower courts must balance the harm done to voting rights by the early deadline, versus the harm done to election administration if the deadline is set aside. It seems obvious that there is no genuine state interest in deadlines as early as Washington’s. States are not required to mail their overseas absentee ballots until September 21.

Michigan requires the certification the day after the later of the party’s state or national conventions. The Michigan Democratic Party is free to have a special state convention at a late date.


Comments

Five States Have Deadlines for Certification of Presidential Nominees of Qualified Parties Earlier than September 1 — 22 Comments

  1. You really think communist Washington would not put the Democrat on the ballot? Richard Winger is delusional.

  2. SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL BALLOT ACCESS LAWS IN ALL STATES FOR PARTISAN OFFICES – ESP 12 AMDT PREZ ELECTORS.

    14-1 EP CL SUBVERTED NONSTOP SINCE 1868.

  3. VARIOUS STATES HAVE LOCAL/STATE PARTY CONVENTIONS AFTER REGULAR STATE PARTY PRIMARIES [N-O-T PREZ PRIMARIES]

    — IN WHICH PARTY PRECINCT DELEGATES ARE ELECTED >>> LOCAL / CONG DIST CONVS >>> STATE CONVS [AT WHICH 12 AMDT ELECTORS ARE CHOSEN AND USA PREZ/VP CANDS CERTIFIED]

  4. The Democrats have no reason to deviate from their plan to nominate via virtual roll call sometime before August 19th. Wouldn’t want riots at the DNC in Chicago (which there are going to be regardless).

  5. The Democrats will probably proceed with their plan to nominate Harris by virtual convention. That would probably head off any attempt for an upstart to mount a challenge to her at the convention.

  6. I recall mentioning some time ago that this election has some similarities to 1968. Biden dropping out has become another similarity.

  7. Kamala Harris will be nominated by virtual roll call this week. She will beat Trump and be our greatest president ever.

  8. Then you’re racist trash and belong on the trash heap of history, burned alive preferably. We need to all get with the times and join the K-Hive!

  9. Something tells me Biden is fixing to do from the phony China virus. They want to go into the election with an incumbent president. Dr. Jill Mengele or one of the henchmen will slip him a Mickey and then they will blame it on the wuhan flu.

  10. Instead of Biden-Harris, the ticket will be Harris-Biden. Kamala and Hunter. Take it to the bank.

  11. Since presumably almost 4000 pledged delegates have just become unpledged, I kind of doubt that they will nominate Kamala Harris. She’s really not that popular with her own party, let alone its electorate. Unless the Democrats have introduced some silly rule by which the pledge is transferable through endorsement or something, even Bernie Sanders seems a more likely nominee.

    And speaking Epsteining or Fauci-ing the old man, who says it hasn’t happened already? An announcement that he is dropping out of the race delivered via a PDF on Twitter with a suspicious signature, drawn up by an aide in strictest secrecy without anyone else knowing about it, and then no videos, no known phone calls, no public appearances, nothing. Who says he’s even still alive?

  12. Comrade Nuna, of course the nominee is Kamala Harris. It’s a done deal. It will be made official soon, probably this week. There is ZERO doubt that our amazing VP Harris is our presumptive nominee. And very little doubt that she will be our 47th POTUS! Exciting!

  13. HOW MANY MAJOR QUOTA FACTIONS IN THE USA COMMIE DONKEY PARTY —

    DEMANDING CANDS / SEATS / OFFICES / $$$ ???


    TOO MANY FACTIONS — NOT ENOUGH OF THE CANDS / ETC ???

  14. AGAIN — DEADLINE – BALLOT PRINTING DATES ???

    POST-DEADLINE PRINTING DATES VIA COURT ORDERS ???

  15. Comrade Z, we are uniting around Kamala Harris and who ever she chooses to be the next VPOTUS. Your birther fantasies have nothing to do with the law as actually enforced, which is the only kind of law that matters.

  16. Oh well obviously she is completely ineligible under the natural born citizen clause. But that didn’t stop them naming her VP last time around, nor naming Obama president twice before. Nor the GOP making McCain its presidential candidate. Nor Chester Arthur becoming president. The uniparty respecting that clause of the constitution has sailed long since, unfortunately.
    No, if anything’s going to stop her from becoming presidential nominee, it’s her extreme unpopularity, e.g. from cackling and gloating over having kept people in jail beyond their sentences to use them as free labor for dangerous jobs, lying about visiting the southern border, etc.

  17. Nothing will keep her from becoming president. She will be President. It is destined to pass.

  18. This piece raises several questions which it strangely does not address:

    Why question the constitutionality of Washington’s deadline, but not those of the other states?
    Why in the world would a party schedule its convention for a date after any state deadlines?
    When were these deadlines enacted by the states—before or after the parties scheduled their conventions?

  19. The rules were never applied to the duopoly, why would they worry about rules? They set those for others, not for themselves.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.