Democrats plan to formally nominate President Joe Biden in a virtual roll call vote during the first week of August, before the party’s national convention, despite protests from some Democrats who want more time for the party to consider alternative candidates.
The plan was formally announced in a letter to Democratic National Committee members sent Wednesday morning, following weeks of infighting over whether Biden should remain following a poor debate performance.
Parties typically nominate their presidential standard bearers during live roll call votes at their national conventions, which are often a highlight of the events. But Democrats have been planning the unusual virtual pre-convention call to avoid potential litigation in Ohio, they say.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, co-chair of the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the early nomination has nothing to do with Biden’s debate performance last month or questions about his ability to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“This meeting had been scheduled for many months, on Friday, and was never intended to be a virtual call. The agenda will be set as the Rules Committee moves forward,” Walz said, referring to the committee’s upcoming first meeting.
Virtual voting won’t begin until after Aug. 1, Walz said, and will need to be completed by Aug. 7 to avoid potential legal problems under an Ohio law that set that date as the deadline for parties to submit candidate names for November. voting.
Ohio officials, however, say the deadline issue has already been resolved, thanks to legislation passed earlier this summer.
“The issue is resolved in Ohio, and Democratic officials know this and should stop trying to use Ohio as a scapegoat for their own party’s dysfunction,” said Ben Kindel, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican.
But Democrats say they don’t trust the Republicans running Ohio to follow through. They are worried about last-minute dirty tricks to try to get Biden off the ballot. LaRose appeared unwilling to concede when the deadline was first raised as an issue and has a history of being aggressive in disputes with Democrats.
The Ohio law changing the deadline will not take effect until September 1. Therefore, the original August 7 deadline will still be in effect when that date comes and passes, providing a potential opening for litigation.
Biden-allied Democrats note that Ohio’s secretary of state previously said the issue needed to be resolved by early May so he could put Biden’s name on the ballot, but the Legislature finally it didn’t pass legislation by the end of May.
“We believe a virtual element is the wisest approach because it ensures access to the polls… and avoids potential risks if there is a delay in the process,” Walz and her Rules Committee co-chair Bishop Leah Daughtry wrote in the letter to DNC members.
“We know that the Republican Party and its affiliated groups… plan to mount every conceivable legal challenge to the Democratic Party nominees,” they continued. “Unless the Democratic nominees for President and Vice President are selected and certified for Ohio by August 7, we will likely face litigation over the effectiveness of our records.”
Democrats chose an unusually late date for this year’s convention, which is scheduled to begin in Chicago on August 19. And in the letter, Walz and Daughtry said the timing raises potential conflicts in several other states, such as Washington and Virginia, which have deadlines for parties to submit the names of their nominees during the convention period.
The co-chairs of the Rules Committees have attempted to reassure DNC members that they do not want a “rushed virtual voting process” and will use Friday’s meeting to explain why they believe a virtual roll call vote is necessary and how it would work, but they will not . formalize any rules immediately.
“If Biden was ahead by 10 points, we would still be doing this because we had to deal with the Ohio situation,” said one Democrat familiar with the Rules Committee process, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.
A delegate who said he received a call from the Biden campaign on Monday afternoon, however, reported the Biden campaign as saying that an earlier virtual vote in late July was “still the goal.” The campaign manager asked the delegate, who is a free and unpledged delegate, if he was “ready for his experience as a pledged Biden delegate,” the person said.
Democrats skeptical of Biden’s physical and political health accuse the party of using the Ohio issue as a pretext to secure the president’s renomination.
“There is no legal justification for this extraordinary and unprecedented action that would effectively speed up the nomination process by nearly a month,” read a draft letter signed by more than 20 House Democrats that has been circulating on Capitol Hill. “[S]a hectic debate and prematurely ending any possible change in the Democratic ticket through an unnecessary and unprecedented ‘virtual call’ in the coming days is a terrible idea.”
But House critics decided not to send the letter, according to a spokesman for Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., who was leading the effort, in light of the formal announcement of the DNC’s plans.
Activists are still planning a demonstration Friday at the DNC headquarters in Washington to protest the virtual roll call vote and push for a new candidate.
Democratic Party rules make it virtually impossible to replace a candidate unless he or she decides to resign.
And Biden firmly controls the party’s apparatus, including the committees that write its rules, as is typical of any party that controls the White House.
He won 99% of pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention during this year’s presidential primaries, when he ran essentially unopposed. And key party committees and leadership positions are filled with hand-picked Biden allies, chosen in part for their loyalty to the president.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
