Republicans are planning to try to make it difficult for President Biden to be removed from the Democratic ticket after he announced plans to resign on Sunday.
Influential conservative group The Heritage Foundation has been preparing a legal battle for months, first reported by DailyMail.com, in anticipation of Biden stepping aside.
“The process of replacement and retirement is very complicated,” said Mike Howell, Executive Director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
“We will continue to be vigilant to ensure that proper election integrity procedures are followed,” he continued. The foundation is currently weighing its first action since Biden stepped aside.
Some Republicans said removing Biden from the top of the ticket after voters had already chosen him in the primaries was undemocratic.
“At this unprecedented moment in American history, we must be clear about what just happened,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote in X.
An influential Republican group is already preparing for a fightback if Democrats try to remove Joe Biden from the top of the ticket.
‘The Democratic Party has kicked the Democratic candidate off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election. By invalidating the votes of more than 14 million Americans who elected Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite.’
Now that Biden has dropped out, delegates to the Democratic National Convention must choose a new nominee. But from there, they can expect legal challenges from Republicans seeking to prevent any other Democratic candidates from making it to the polls in certain states.
The Heritage Oversight project has set its sights on three key battleground states where it believes removing Biden from the Democratic ticket would prevent anyone else from replacing him: Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Wisconsin does not allow withdrawal from the ballot for any reason other than death.
In Nevada, no changes can be made to the ballot after 5 p.m. on the fourth Friday in June of an election year or if “a candidate dies or is declared insane or mentally incompetent.”
If Biden drops out less than 60 days before the Georgia election, his name will remain on the ballot, but no votes will be counted.
In Texas, candidates from 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.
Some states do not have laws in place to deal with the withdrawal of a presidential candidate, and there is little precedent for such a situation occurring.
The memo concluded: “Policymakers and the public should be prepared for all the externalities that arise if President Biden does not run for president in 2024. The replacement and recall process presents many election integrity issues.”
‘Compliance with the law in some states may result in that process not being successful for the purposes of getting another candidate on the ballot.’
Biden resigned on Sunday after a sea of Democratic calls for him to do so. He had insisted he would remain in the race after the disastrous debate in which his age and cognitive decline were on display.