COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Sunday to ensure that President Joe Biden appears on Ohio's ballot for the November general election.
DeWine also signed a bill to ban foreign nationals from contributing to state ballot campaigns.
This comes more than a week after DeWine ordered the state's Legislature to meet in a special session to resolve the issue of Ohio's ballot deadline falling before the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.
House Bill 2 delays the deadline for candidates to be certified on Ohio's ballot from Aug. 7 to Sept. 1.
The measure passed in the House 63-31 with 31 Republicans voting no. In the Senate, the vote was 30-1.
The ballot fix applies only to this year's election.
Despite getting DeWine's signature, the Democratic National Committee already moved to neutralize the need for any vote in Ohio last week, when it announced it would solve Biden’s problem with Ohio’s ballot deadline itself by holding a virtual roll call vote to nominate him.
The virtual proceedings will allow Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to get the party’s formal nod and will be very similar to the process used in 2020.
The DNC has not yet announced when the virtual roll call will take place.
With the foreign nationals legislation becoming law, it could affect ballot issue campaigns making their way toward Ohio’s Nov. 5 ballot.
Those include measures proposing changes to Ohio’s redistricting law, raising the minimum wage to $15, granting qualified immunity for police and protecting certain voting rights.