Alabama lawmakers advanced legislation Wednesday to ensure President Joe Biden will appear on the state's November ballot, mirroring accommodations made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump. Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, and Abraham Lincoln were all left off Alabama’s President Ballot.
Legislative committees in the Alabama House of Representatives and Senate approved identical bills that would push back the state's certification deadline from 82 days to 74 days before the general election in order to accommodate the date of Democrats' nominating convention. That would solve President Biden’s problem.
The bills now move to the full chambers. Alabama has one of the earliest candidate certification deadlines in the country which has caused difficulties for whichever political party has the later convention date that year.
"We want to make sure every citizen in the state of Alabama has the opportunity to vote for the candidate of his or her choice," Democratic Senator Merika Coleman, the sponsor of the Senate bill, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The issue of Biden's ballot access has arisen in Alabama and Ohio as Republican secretaries of state warned that certification deadlines fall before the Democratic National Convention is set to begin on August 19th. The Biden campaign has asked the two states to accept provisional certification, arguing that has been done in past elections. The Republican election chiefs have refused, arguing they don't have authority, and will enforce the deadlines.
Democrats proposed the two Alabama bills, but the legislation moved out of committee with support from Republicans who hold a lopsided majority in the Alabama Legislature. The bills were approved with little discussion. However, two Republicans who spoke in favor of the bill called it an issue of fairness.
Republican House member Bob Fincher, chairman of the committee that heard the House bill, said this is "not the first time we've run into this problem" and the state made allowances.
"I'd like to think that if the shoe was on the other foot, that this would be taken care of. And I think that Alabamians have a deep sense of fairness when it comes to politics and elections," Republican Sen. Sam Givhan said during the committee meeting.
Trump faced the same issue in Alabama in 2020. The Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature in 2020 passed legislation to change the certification deadline for the 2020 election. The bill stated that the change was made "to accommodate the dates of the 2020 Republican National Convention." However, an attorney representing the Biden campaign and DNC, wrote in a letter to Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen that it was provisional certification that allowed Trump on the ballot in 2020, because there were still problems with the GOP date even with the new 2020 deadline.
APR previously reported three other examples where Alabama did this. The New York Times reported in 1964 how the names of President Lyndon Johnson and his running mate Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota failed to appear on Alabama’s ballot. Critics of the State point to LBJ’s signing of the U.S. Civil Rights Act that same year. Time Magazine reported in 1948 how President Harry Truman was denied inclusion on Alabama's ballot. That was also the year the President ordered the desegregation of the U.S. Military. The National Park Service website explains Abraham Lincoln also did not appear on Alabama’s Presidential ballot in 1860. The NPS says the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia did not cast votes. Those States upheld Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederacy.
