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WASHINGTON — Democrats plan to move forward with a virtual roll call that would allow convention delegates to choose their presidential nominee before their in-person meeting in Chicago next month. Vice President Kamala Harris The position is now in high demand now that President Joe Biden has given up his reelection bid.
The convention’s rules committee will meet Wednesday to approve how virtual roll call voting will work, but The Associated Press obtained a draft of the plan Monday evening. The draft does not list a start date for virtual voting, but Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said the process would be completed by Aug. 7, 12 days before the Democratic convention begins.
“We are living through an unprecedented moment in our history, and as a party we are approaching this moment with the seriousness it deserves,” Harrison said on a conference call with reporters. “We are prepared to conduct a transparent, expeditious and orderly process and move forward as a unified Democratic Party with the help of candidates who represent our values.”
He also said Democrats “can and will proceed quickly and fairly in executing the nomination.”
this Democratic National Convention It will open in person on Aug. 19. Within hours of Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he was giving up his reelection bid, state delegations attending the convention began pledging their near-unanimous support for Harris.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday, ending weeks of scrambling by Democrats, many of whom feared he wouldn’t be able to survive the rigors of a campaign, let alone reelection, after a poor debate performance against Republican Donald Trump last month.
The president has endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee to succeed him, but she won’t formally do so until she secures the nomination of delegates to the party’s convention. Rules for the virtual roll call her party plans require Harris and any potential Democrat willing to challenge her to submit electronic signatures from 300 convention delegates, with no more than 50 from the same state.
The vice president and other eligible candidates will have a few days to lobby delegates for support before a virtual vote is held. Multiple rounds of voting may be required, but the process will still be completed by August 7.
The date is significant because it was Ohio’s original deadline for voting in the presidential election. Lawmakers in the state later revised that date, but the change doesn’t take effect until Sept. 1 — and lawyers for the Democratic National Committee warned that waiting until after the initial deadline to finalize a candidate could lead to legal challenges.
The Democratic Party first announced in May that it would hold a virtual roll call. Biden’s withdrawal from the race has not changed the Democratic Party’s plans, but has made them more complicated.
Harris remains the front-runner to become the Democratic nominee. Since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her, the vice president has received support from hundreds of Democratic lawmakers, governors and some of the nation’s most powerful labor unions, as well as members of several state congressional delegations.
Meanwhile, no major Democrats have announced plans to challenge Harris, who would be the first woman of color to be nominated for president by a major party.
Democratic National Convention Chair Minyon Moore said Monday the virtual process was necessary to prevent a potential floor fight in Chicago.
“An in-person, contested convention simply cannot accommodate the multi-round nominating process for a presidential candidate who must then choose a vice presidential candidate and still meet the ballot access certification requirements in every state necessary for a Democratic victory,” Moore told reporters. “Once we are in person in Chicago, we will be united.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost, a 27-year-old Florida Democrat who is a leading voice in Biden’s reelection campaign to reach young voters, posted on X on Monday: “Just because the Vice President is such a cohesive candidate and has so much support doesn’t mean the process isn’t open. Anyone can run.”
In 2020, the Democratic National Convention canceled its offline meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the states formally nominated Biden online. Democrats meeting in Chicago still plan to conduct in-state roll calls, which is a fixed procedure for nominating conventions, but this may be a ritual because online voting should have determined who the candidates are.
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