“It can happen so fast or a little too late. Timing is everything.” – Natalie Nicole Hemby and Troy Jones

Many of us will be voting in an election of some importance this November 5.

Or will we?

To be clear there will be an election that day, Lord willin’, but the race with the most nationwide interest might not look the way you expect it to look.

This is because Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, the state’s chief election official, recently took notice of a scheduling snafu involving the presidential race, and it may affect who appears on the ballot.

Allen released a public statement saying he has notified the Alabama Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee he will not certify Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to appear on Alabama ballots as the party’s candidates for president and vice president based on the Democratic National Committee’s current timeline for certifying Biden and Harris.

You might be thinking, “Don’t the presidential primaries decide this? How is this even an issue?” The answer is, yes, all the primaries will be over in early June, and we are basically already assured of a Donald Trump versus Biden rematch, but delegates from each state and territory voting at both parties’ national conventions is what makes presidential candidacies official.

Allen points out Alabama law requires political parties to certify their nominees 82 days before the November election. The Democratic National Convention will take place Aug. 19-24, a few days after that deadline. Allen says he will strictly interpret Alabama law, and if no candidate is officially chosen by that time, he will have Alabama’s ballots printed without a Democratic candidate for president listed.

Sounds simple enough. The Democratic Party should have held their national convention before Alabama’s certification deadline. Well, it is a little more complicated than that, and we only have to go back four years to see why.

Attorney Barry Ragsdale, on behalf of the Biden campaign, points out both of the major parties missed the 82-day deadline in 2020. The Alabama State Legislature passed a law to make a one-time exception for that election cycle and changed the deadline to 75 days before Election Day.

The Democratic National Convention was able to certify Biden as their candidate under the new timeline in 2020, and yet, the extended deadline still fell earlier than that year’s Republican National Convention.

John Merrill, Alabama’s secretary of state at the time, decided to accept what was phrased as a “provisional certification” which stated the Republican Party expected Trump and Mike Pence to be the nominees for the party, and the Trump/Pence ticket was placed on the ballot. However, Allen is already on the record saying he will not accept a provisional certification like Merrill did.

Now the simplest workaround will be for the state legislature to pass another one-time extension for the candidate certification process to allow the Biden/Harris certification to take place.

Whether a Republican supermajority in both chambers will restrain themselves from sticking it to the Democratic Party remains to be seen. For what it is worth, the Republican National Convention will take place in July this year, well before the state deadline.

Furthermore, there could be actual political benefits for Republicans to keep Biden and Harris off the ballot.

AL.com reporter John Sharp interviewed former Alabama Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman on this issue, and Siegelman worries keeping Biden and Harris off the ballot might dampen Democratic turnout in Alabama’s freshly redrawn 2^nd Congressional District. The 2^nd District is anticipated to switch from Republican to Democratic representation, but the margin for that to happen is narrow.

Without action from the legislature or a change of heart from Allen, the issue likely ends up in court. My professional opinion, as an alumnus of Armchair Lawyer School of Law, is since there is a precedent of the state accepting a provisional certification – even though this certification was accepted by a different secretary of state – the courts would likely grant Biden and Harris access to the ballot anyway.

Legalities aside, people should have the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice without having to jump through extra hurdles over what amounts to a technicality. Biden and Harris supporters could still write in their votes but forcing this option creates complications both for voters and for counting votes in what is the biggest-voter-turnout election every four years.

Hopefully, the legislature can pass an extension and save us the headache and attorneys’ fees. With the numbers of days in this year’s legislative session dwindling, timing is everything.