DNC readies to move forward with virtual roll call Biden nomination despite concerns

(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee’s Rules Committee on Friday made the case for proceeding with President Joe Biden’s virtual nomination while also outlining next steps in the process and how virtual roll call voting would work.

Crucially, the Rules Committee did not take any votes, but just discussed the various proposals it plans to rubber-stamp at its next meeting, which it said will be held by Friday, July 26.

A proposal for the virtual nomination still says the roll call will happen the first week of August.

DNC Chair Jamie Harrison briefly acknowledged accumulating worry around the process of a virtual roll call at the top of the meeting and emphasized, despite some Democrats grumbling, that the party plans on going ahead with a virtual roll call, not one done in-person.

The virtual voting will start no earlier than Aug. 1 and should be wrapped by Aug. 7, Democrats said. The firm start date can be set only once the DNC passes the current rules package. The presidential and vice-presidential acceptance speeches would still be in-person

Democrats critical of the move to proceed with the virtual nomination say that Biden, who is under intense pressure to drop out of the race by virtually every rank of the party, would be confirmed as the official nominee without any real opportunity for opposition when delegates are together in at the DNC convention, set to begin in Chicago Aug. 19.

Reiterating that the DNC is following the process decided on in May, Harrison said, “No part of this process is rushed. The timeline for the virtual roll call process remains on schedule and unchanged. from when the DNC made that decision back in May, and voted to ratify in mid-June.

Harrison also maintained Biden would be on the top of the ticket as the result of this plan.

“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, will be reelected because of you. Because of you, we can look forward to nominating our president through a virtual roll call and celebrating with fanfare together in Chicago alongside all of our delegates who are supporting the Biden Harris ticket,” he said.

The proposal to move forward with the virtual nomination of Biden ahead of Democrats’ in-person convention comes because of a ballot-access conflict in Ohio that was eventually corrected.

In April, Ohio’s secretary of state alerted Democrats that the state’s ballot certification deadline would come after the party’s convention in August — meaning Biden wouldn’t be the official nominee by their cutoff and thus was ineligible.

The Ohio legislature later rectified the issue, passing legislation that extended their deadline and allowed Biden’s qualification.

Still, the DNC argued that GOP-controlled Ohio leaders are acting in bad faith and that Biden’s qualification is not assured.

“We will not let extremism in Ohio corrupt the democratic process. This election comes down to nothing less than saving our democracy from a man who has said that he wants to be a dictator on day one. So we certainly aren’t going to tempt fate by inviting challenges to policing the Democratic ticket on the ballot throughout this country,” stressed Harrison.

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office told ABC News, “The issue is resolved in Ohio, and Democrat proxies know that and should stop trying to scapegoat Ohio for their own party’s disfunction. Remember, they only ran into an issue with the deadline in the first place by scheduling their convention after the well-established deadline under Ohio law. Now that their candidate is clearly floundering, they blame Republicans.”