Top Democratic Party officials on Friday urged the Democratic National Convention’s rules committee to choose to nominate President Biden through a virtual roll call vote rather than on the convention floor, as Mr. Biden continues to lose support from Democrats about whether he should be on the ticket at all.
Dana Remus, an outside legal counsel for the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee, said during an online meeting that the “wisest, most prudent” legal course would be for the party to select its nominee before Aug. 7, instead of at the convention, which begins on Aug. 19. Meeting that deadline would ensure that Mr. Biden would appear on the ballot in Ohio, Ms. Remus said, and avoid the possibility of a legal challenge by Republicans in that state to keep him off.
“Unfortunately, at this moment in time, we have to assume that everything about the election process that Republicans and affiliated groups can challenge, they will challenge,” Ms. Remus said. “No matter the strength of their arguments.”
Democratic officials also said the virtual roll call should not happen before Aug. 1. The convention’s rules committee will vote in a meeting next week on whether to conduct a virtual roll call. The date of that meeting has not yet been set, but it will take place next week.
The move to nominate Mr. Biden virtually has generated an unexpected furor over the intricacies of arcane party rules, at a time when many Democratic elected officials, donors and voters have expressed concerns about the viability of his candidacy. Some have worried that the party is trying to nominate Mr. Biden as soon as possible to lock him in as the party’s standard-bearer against former President Donald J. Trump.
On Friday, at least eight more Congressional Democrats, including Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, called on Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race. The president, who has Covid-19, has been isolating at his vacation home in Delaware but has said he will resume campaigning next week. He is said to have grown more open to the idea of dropping out in recent days, although campaign aides insist he has no plans to do so.
In May, the D.N.C. changed its process to nominate Mr. Biden to accommodate an Aug. 7 deadline to place him on the ballot in Ohio. Lawmakers in that state later passed legislation to push the deadline back to the end of August, but it does not take effect until Sept. 1, leaving them open to the risk of legal challenges from Republicans, D.N.C. officials have said.
During Friday’s online meeting, Jaime Harrison, the D.N.C. chair, acknowledged the controversy over holding a virtual roll call but defended the move as transparent, necessary and long planned.
“I want to be crystal clear here,” Mr. Harrison said. “We are moving forward with the process that we set out in May.”
He added: “No part of this process is rushed.”
The convention’s rules committee co-chairs, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Leah Daughtry, a veteran Democratic operative — both allies of Mr. Biden — also spoke during Friday’s meeting to urge its more than 180 members to approve a virtual roll call. On Tuesday, three former D.N.C. chairs, Terry McAuliffe, Howard Dean and Donna Brazile, sent a letter to committee members with a similar message.
Ms. Daughtry said that committee members would receive at least 48 hours notice of the scheduling of the meeting where they will vote on whether to adopt a virtual roll call. She said that meeting would take place before July 26.
The date of the roll call itself will be set by Mr. Harrison and the Democratic convention chair, Minyon Moore.
The post Democratic Officials Urge Committee to Nominate Biden Through Virtual Vote appeared first on New York Times.
