HARRISBURG, Pa. — If you've scrolled around on social media, you might have stumbled upon posts such as this one from X. In it, the user shares a picture showing a number of states, including Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
"More bad news for Democrats; Biden cannot be replaced on ballot in three swing states," writes the user before including Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin to the list.
But is that true? Let's VERIFY.
We reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of State and Dr. Stephen Medvic, a government professor at Franklin&Marshall College, for this piece.
According to Pennsylvania Election Code, the Secretary of State has at least 70 days before the election to provide counties with the names of all known candidates that will appear on the November ballot.
A spokesman with the Department of State said the substitution deadline does not apply to major party presidential candidates, who are nominated by their parties at their respective nominating conventions.
“There have been no votes cast, yet," said Dr. Stephen Medvic. "There is no nominee, whether it’s Biden, Harris, or anyone else for the Democratic Party at the moment.”
So we can VERIFY that President Biden will not appear on Pennsylvania ballots.
But what about the other states mentioned in the post?
Alabama, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Texas all require major parties to certify their candidates by August. While Indiana, Ohio, Nevada, and Wisconsin require the two parties to certify their candidates by September.
In Georgia, the state requires a notice of candidacy by the second Tuesday in July. However, both major party nominees are exempt from that rule.
Meanwhile in Michigan, the major parties must certify their nominees within one business day of the conclusion of the party convention. For Democrats, that deadline would be August 23.
And in Washington, the parties must certify their nominee by August 20 in the middle of the Democratic National Convention.
But Dr. Medvic said none of this would cause any issues getting another name on top of the Democratic ticket.
“There has been no deadline that’s been passed. So, there’s no legal problem with the Democrats getting, let’s say, Kamala Harris, access to the ballot in Pennsylvania or any other state in the nation.”
So, we can VERIFY that the entire claim from this tweet is false.