Democrats plan to push ahead with virtual roll call ahead of their convention, with Harris favored

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic Party plans to push forward with a virtual roll call in which delegates to its convention can choose a presidential nominee before they meet in person next month in Chicago, with Vice President Kamala Harris heavily favored now that President Joe Biden has abandoned his reelection bid.

The convention rules committee will meet Wednesday to approve how the virtual roll call will work, but a draft of the plan they are set to approve was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

The proposal does not list a date for when the virtual roll call begins, but Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said the process will be completed by Aug. 7.

“We can and will be both fast and fair as we execute this nomination,” Harrison on a conference call with reporters.

The party says the virtual roll call will potentially feature multiple rounds of voting on nominees. To qualify, candidates must have the electronic signatures of 300 convention delegates.

The Democratic National Convention opens in-person on Aug. 19 in Chicago. State delegations to the gathering began pledging their near-unanimous support for Harris in the hours after Biden announced he was abandoning his reelection bid on Sunday.

Biden endorsed Harris shortly after announcing he was abandoning his campaign.

That doesn’t formally make her the party’s nominee, but the vice president spent hours Sunday calling 100-plus party leaders, members of Congress, labor leaders and leaders of advocacy and civil rights organizations to say she’d earn the nomination in her own right and to ensure they would support her.

Harris has since been endorsed by hundreds of Democratic lawmakers, leading governors and some of the country’s most powerful unions, as well as the delegations to the convention from Florida and North and South Carolina.

Biden’s departure from the race and endorsement of Harris ended weeks of questions about whether he was up to the rigors of a campaign and a second term in the wake of his dismal debate performance against Republican Donald Trump late last month.

Democrats first announced in May that they were resorting to a virtual roll call in order to make a deadline in Ohio and ensure that Biden’s name appeared on the ballot in that state.

Ohio lawmakers have since nullified the previous deadline, but the DNC said that, because the change doesn’t take effect until Sept. 1, the party still had to settle its nominee prior to the original deadline or risk legal challenges.

In 2020, the in-person Democratic convention was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and states used a virtual process to formally nominate Biden. When they gather in Chicago next month, Democrats will still hold a state-by-state roll call that is a fixture of nominating conventions, although it would largely be ceremonial.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press