DNC letter says virtual roll call to nominate Biden will happen in August

The Democratic National Committee has determined that a virtual roll call vote to formally nominate President Biden as the party’s nominee will happen in August, according to a letter sent Wednesday by the heads of the convention rules committee. 

The letter, obtained first by CBS News, and sent by the heads of the Democratic convention rules committee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Leah Daughtry, says they have confirmed with the DNC and the Democratic National Convention that “no voting will begin before August 1.”

“None of this will be rushed. Unlike our nation’s other major political party, our rules are set in public meetings, anchored in the Party’s charter and its traditions. That will continue in the 2024 cycle, as it must with so much at stake,” they write.

The letter was sent to the 186 members of the convention rules committee on Wednesday, a group of Democratic convention delegates who will take part in the next formal step of setting a date to start the virtual roll call, and who will also be voting in the roll call, which could last about a week.

This follows a Tuesday letter sent by three former chairs of the Democratic National Committee that expressed support for an early virtual roll call vote. 

The letter sent by Daughtry and Walz says the upcoming convention rules committee meeting on Friday will focus on how the convention will operate and discuss final rules for the convention but will not start the implementation of a “rushed virtual voting process, though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work.”

“We will elaborate on the reasoning below as to why a virtual vote is the wisest approach, and will explain how a virtual vote would work,” they write. 

“On Friday, we will propose a framework for how best to proceed. Next week, we will follow up with a second meeting to consider and adopt specific rules for that purpose. No matter what may be reported, our goal is not to fast-track. Our goals are to uphold our tradition of transparency, our commitment to an effective nominating process that delivers a nominee on all state ballots, and ultimately to set our nominees on a path to victory in November,” they add. 

The timing of this letter comes as a group of congressional Democrats urged the DNC to cancel the virtual vote, which initially came about because of an early ballot deadline in Ohio but is now seen by some Democrats as a way to curtail “legitimate debate” about Mr. Biden’s place on the Democratic ticket. 

Though Ohio has now extended its deadline from Aug. 7 to Sept. 1, the DNC said it’s keeping the virtual roll call in place because it doesn’t trust state Republicans and fears they’ll sue to keep Mr. Biden off the ballot.

The letter sent Thursday addresses this as well, saying that concern of litigation with Ohio and timing complications with other states in August cannot “jeopardize whether the Democratic ticket appears on the ballot in must-win states.”