I have been seeing stories like this and this citing to a Heritage memo saying that in some states it would be hard for Democrats to list someone other than Biden on the ballot if Democrats nominate someone else at the Democratic National Convention. I don’t put any credence into it. Joe Biden is not the party’s nominee now, and states generally point to the major party’s nominee as the one whose name is on the ballot.

For example, the memo, embedded here, cites to a provision of Wisconsin law 8.35(1) about replacing nominees when they withdraw from office after nomination. But Biden has not yet been nominated. And there’s a specific rule for presidential nominees set forth in 8.16(7):

Nominees chosen at a national convention and under s. 8.18 (2) by each party entitled to a partisan primary ballot shall be the party’s candidates for president, vice president and presidential electors. The state or national chairperson of each such party shall certify the names of the party’s nominees for president and vice president to the commission no later than 5 p.m. on the first Tuesday in September preceding a presidential election. Each name shall be in one of the formats authorized in s. 7.08 (2) (a).

And in the unlikely event that a state law would make Biden be forced to be listed on the ballot (I’m not even sure how that could be), then I expect litigation would place the actual nominee of the party on the ballot. Voters should have the right to vote for the party’s candidate, and there are cases that affirm this principle that go back a while.