The Democratic Party will hold a virtual vote on Thursday to select Vice President Kamala Harris as their new nominee. The nearly 4,000 pledged delegates allocated during the Democratic primary process will be voting on the nomination. The majority of the party’s delegates were originally pledged to President Biden before he dropped out and endorsed Harris. Within 48 hours of her campaign launch, an overwhelming majority of the delegates said they would back her, making her the presumptive nominee.
Under DNC rules, Harris’ presidential campaign would need to file paperwork and obtain digital signatures from at least 300 delegates by July 30 to challenge her nomination. It is unlikely that a challenger will meet that threshold, and Harris has already won endorsements from over 3,000 of the 4,000 pledged delegates. The virtual roll call vote will be held as soon as August 1, with delegates voting through an online platform provided by the DNC. Each voting delegate will receive a personalized form to cast their vote, with security features to establish the authenticity and accuracy of each vote.
The process for the virtual roll call and gathering of delegate signatures will mirror the process used in 2020 during the pandemic. If Harris has a qualified challenger, the roll call vote will be delayed until August 3 to allow candidates to make their pitch to delegates. The virtual roll call allows for multiple rounds of voting if neither Harris nor a challenger reaches the majority threshold of 1,976 pledged delegates on the first ballot. Automatic delegates or “superdelegates” will also have a vote in the process, but their vote will not count in the first round unless a single nominee wins majority support.
While the DNC has said that Harris and her running mate can be nominated at the same time, the vice presidential candidate must be picked by August 7 to comply with Ohio’s ballot deadline. Harris’s team is planning to finish vetting the VP field and expects her to pick her running mate by that date. Once Harris makes her pick, the nominee for vice president will be declared. The DNC is holding an early virtual roll call vote before the convention due to Ohio’s August 7 deadline for submitting the names of certified candidates for the November ballot. There is concern that legal challenges from outside groups could arise if the deadline is not met.
Ohio Republicans passed a law pushing the nomination deadline to September 1, but it will not go into effect until then. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says Ohio will honor that September 1 deadline. The DNC and members fear challenges from groups like the Heritage Foundation if they do not comply with state deadlines. Holding the virtual vote before the convention minimizes the risk of legal challenges post-election.
