It’s been nearly two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris officially won the Democratic presidential nomination in an online vote. But the delegates charged with picking a nominee did so in relative isolation in a process that wasn’t much fun for anyone.
Once more, with feeling!
It’s been nearly two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris officially won the Democratic presidential nomination in an online vote, the first time a nominee was named prior to a party’s convention. But the roughly 4,700 delegates charged with picking a nominee to lead the ticket did so from locations around the globe on their laptops and devices in relative isolation from one other. There was none of the pomp and fanfare that usually accompany the selection of the party’s standard-bearer. In other words, it wasn’t very fun.
Democratic party leaders hope to make up for that by holding a ceremonial vote at the Democratic National Convention, which begins Monday in Chicago. Among the major agenda items will be what’s essentially a re-staging of the official presidential nomination vote from early August, mirroring the sometimes-festive, sometimes-raucous roll call votes that have been a staple of in-person party conventions for almost 200 years.
The Democratic National Committee calls it a “celebratory Roll Call” and said in a statement the event would give delegates the opportunity to “celebrate the nomination” of Harris, who is the first woman of color to lead a major party presidential ticket.
Here’s how it will work:
Delegates will gather on the convention floor on Tuesday to cast their symbolic votes. It’s the third consecutive Democratic convention when the roll call was held on a Tuesday and the first in-person roll call since 2016. For decades, Democrats held their roll call on a Wednesday, the second-to-last day of the convention.
It’s been more than 40 years since there’s been any question about who the nominee would be heading into a convention roll call vote. Since then, a single candidate has always emerged in each party as the presumptive nominee well before the convention, making the vote itself a foregone conclusion.
That is especially true in the 2024 Democratic convention, since the ceremonial vote is non-binding and cannot undo or modify the results of the earlier, official vote to nominate Harris held over five days in the first week of August. That’s not to say there can’t be some attempt to stage a protest vote from the convention floor, but it won’t have any impact on the outcome.
The result from the official nomination vote from early August was 4,563 votes for Harris and 52 for “present,” the only other option on the ballot.
