Top Democrats are racing against a two-week deadline to avoid a debacle in New Hampshire that would lead to President Joe Biden not appearing in the state’s primary ballot, giving the 2024 primary to another candidate.
The reports first surfaced in Politico on Thursday (May 18), with some saying that the consequences of this problem are Biden’s own doing, given his insistence on South Carolina becoming the first state on the Democrats’ calendar to hold the primaries — as a reward to the state for nominating him in 2020.
The change flies in the face of existing New Hampshire law that requires the state’s primaries to always come first, a week before others.
However, the decision to give South Carolina the first vote moves New Hampshire to second in the lineup with a joint date with Nevada.
If the office of New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu and Republicans in charge of the state legislature continues to refuse to act on the matter, the primary election may be held without Biden’s name on the ballot, according to Politico.
Members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), including American Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten, are privately negotiating overtime for the Granite State.
But they must act quickly — there is a June 3 deadline for states to change their laws or be eliminated from the official early voting lineup.
Weingarten insisted that if there was a way to resolve the conundrum by giving New Hampshire more time, every Democrat would say, ‘Give New Hampshire more time.’
