WASHINGTON – 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:
When is the celebratory roll call?
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.
Will there be any suspense in the roll vote?
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. An additional 79 delegates did not cast votes.
What will the ceremonial roll call look like?
Convention organizers have indicated the ceremonial vote will follow the general format of past in-person convention roll calls, with some stylistic flourishes. State delegations will still call out their votes from the convention floor in a session presided over by the convention secretary. These presentations are usually an opportunity for each delegation to express their support for the nominee and the party, while also demonstrating their state pride. This year, each presentation will be accompanied by a song to represent the delegation, similar to a star batter's “walk-up” song at a baseball game. A DJ will play the song on the main stage, while iconic images from each state and territory will be displayed on large screens.
What’s the order of voting for the states?
The convention secretary will call on state delegations to vote mostly in alphabetical order, with a few key exceptions. Voting in the celebratory roll call will begin with President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware as a tribute to the president. The roll call vote will conclude with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz's home state of Minnesota and Harris' home state of California. Organizers say the modified order symbolizes the passing of the torch from Biden to Harris and the “next generation of Democratic leadership.”
Modifying the order in which delegations cast their votes is a common tool that both parties have used to choreograph the roll call to allow certain states to play a heightened role in the process.
Do they vote straight through?
In past roll call votes at both parties' conventions, the voting temporarily stops once the nominee surpasses the votes needed to win the nomination so that delegates mark the occasion and hold a celebration on the floor. Eventually, the voting resumes until all delegations have voted. Convention organizers have not indicated how or whether delegates would mark the milestone of Harris symbolically clinching the nomination. The distinction is somewhat moot this year, since Harris is already the nominee, based on the official vote held earlier in August.
Is there a vote for the vice presidential nominee?
Delegates will cast symbolic votes in the celebratory roll call for both Harris and Walz, according to a statement from convention officials, a departure from traditional roll calls.
Normally, the vice presidential nominee is officially chosen by delegates through a separate procedure, often on a different day of the convention. Vice presidential nominees of both parties are usually selected by acclamation, or a voice vote by the entire convention delegation, rather than through a separate roll call vote. This separate process is usually a formality, since the identity of the presumptive vice presidential nominee is often known well before the start of the convention.
This year, Walz won the vice presidential nomination in early August. After becoming the presidential nominee, Harris officially nominated Walz to be her running mate, and the convention chair declared Walz the nominee in accordance with party rules. The same procedure was used to nominate Harris as the vice presidential nominee at the 2020 convention.
When do Harris and Walz accept the nominations?
Harris and Walz became the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees Aug. 6. But each will symbolically accept the nominations in speeches before the full convention. Harris will speak on Thursday, in keeping with both parties' tradition of the nominee addressing the convention on the final night.
Walz will speak on Wednesday night. For decades, the Democratic vice presidential nominee addressed the convention on the final night, just before the presidential nominee. That practice ended in 1996, and the vice presidential nominee's speech has been held on Wednesday night ever since, with the exception of 2012, when it was held on Thursday.
Were roll call votes always done in-person?
At the 2020 convention, then-candidate Joe Biden won the nomination after delegates cast their votes virtually through a series of elaborate live remote video presentations from every state and U.S. territory, a process created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unique and sometimes quirky nature of the remote presentations quickly became a convention favorite. This year, convention planners said in a statement on Sunday that the celebratory roll call will once again incorporate some live video elements to “showcase the diversity and beauty of America.”
Why was the official nomination vote held before the convention this year?
DNC officials first indicated in May that they would conduct a virtual roll call before the convention to clear a potential hurdle in getting the Democratic nominee on the ballot in Ohio. Ohio’s deadline to file for the general election ballot was Aug. 7. Although the deadline had been modified in previous presidential election years to accommodate late-summer conventions of both parties, this year state Republicans initially planned to enforce the existing deadline, with one GOP lawmaker calling the scheduling bind “ a Democratic problem.”
The Republican-controlled Legislature did eventually make an accommodation for the convention at the behest of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, but the law does not go into effect until Aug. 31. Citing concerns that Ohio Republicans could still try to block their candidate from getting on the ballot despite the legislative fix, DNC officials moved forward with their virtual roll call as originally planned.
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