Republicans want to make it harder to remove President Biden from the Democratic ballot box after he announced Sunday that he wants to leave office.
The influential conservative group The Heritage Foundation has been preparing for a legal battle for months, DailyMail.com first reported, in preparation for Biden’s resignation.
“The process of replacement and retirement is very complicated,” said Mike Howell, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
“We remain vigilant that proper election integrity procedures are followed,” he continued. The foundation is currently considering its first action since Biden left office.
Some Republicans argue that it is undemocratic to remove Biden from the top spot when voters had already chosen him in the primaries.
“At this unprecedented moment in American history, we must be clear about what just happened,” Chairman Mike Johnson wrote on X.
An influential Republican group is already preparing for a fightback if Democrats try to unseat Joe Biden from the top of the ticket
‘The Democratic Party forced the Democratic candidate off the ballot just over 100 days before the election. By invalidating the votes of over 14 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven the exact opposite.’
Now that Biden has withdrawn, it will be up to delegates at the Democratic National Convention to choose a new nominee. But from there, they can expect legal challenges from Republicans who want to prevent another Democratic nominee from appearing on the ballot in certain states.
The Heritage Oversight project focused on three contested states where Biden was just elected. According to the project, if Biden is removed from the Democratic ticket, no one else could replace him: Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, it is illegal to remove someone from the ballot except because of death.
In Nevada, no changes may be made to the ballot after 5 p.m. on the fourth Friday in June of an election year, unless “a nominee dies or is declared insane or mentally incompetent.”
If Biden withdraws less than 60 days before the Georgia election, his name will remain on the ballot but no votes will be counted.
In Texas, the nominees of both parties have until the 74th day before the election to withdraw from the ballot. Some states, such as South Carolina, do not allow candidates to withdraw for political reasons.
In some states, there are no laws governing how to handle a presidential candidate’s withdrawal, and there is little precedent for such a situation occurring.
The memo concluded: “Policymakers and the public should be prepared for all the external consequences that result from President Biden not running for president in 2024. The process of replacement and withdrawal raises many issues for the integrity of the election.”
‘In some states, compliance with the law may result in such a procedure being unsuccessful and another candidate being unable to be placed on the ballot.’
Biden resigned Sunday amid a flurry of Democratic calls to do so, as he urged him to stay in the race after a disastrous debate in which his age and cognitive decline were on full display.