Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to be confirmed as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The confirmation process, beginning on Thursday, marks a significant shift from traditional in-person balloting to an electronic vote. This change comes less than two weeks after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, leaving Harris as the sole candidate to challenge Republican Donald Trump in November.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced that nearly 4,000 delegates, consisting of grassroots activists and politicians, had submitted signatures supporting Harris. This overwhelming backing from the delegates ensures her spot on the ballot for the upcoming five-day electronic vote. Harris’s confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman to secure a major party’s nomination appears to be a formality, given that no other Democrats have stepped forward to contest her elevation to the top of the ticket.
The DNC reported that Harris received the support of 99 percent of the delegates who signed petitions, far surpassing the qualifying threshold of 300 signatures. “Our delegates have an important responsibility — and opportunity — in the days ahead to cast their history-making ballots for Vice President Harris, ensuring that she will be on the ballot in every state this November,” said DNC chair Jaime Harrison. He added that the party has met this unprecedented moment with a transparent, democratic, and orderly process to unite behind a nominee with a proven record.
The voting process includes both “pledged” delegates and around 700 “superdelegates.” Superdelegates are individuals who hold elected office, such as state governors or members of Congress, or are party officials. The roll call for the vote begins at 9:00 am (1300 GMT) on Thursday, and delegates have until 6:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday to cast their votes via an online platform managed by the DNC. The results announcement is expected late Monday, just as Harris is set to hit the campaign trail in seven crucial battleground states with her yet-to-be-announced running mate.
While U.S. media reported that Harris would kick off her tour in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the DNC has not yet confirmed this information. The 2024 nominating system closely mirrors that of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a virtual convention. The DNC opted for a virtual process this year to meet Ohio’s deadline for submitting the names of certified candidates for the November election by Wednesday next week.
Despite the shift to virtual voting, much remains unclear about the announcement of the results. The DNC has not disclosed whether the vote will be livestreamed or if a rolling tally will be available to the public. Additionally, it is unknown if the results will be made public before the end of the voting period if they are available.
The virtual roll call officially begins the 2024 convention, although the real festivities will start when thousands of grassroots activists gather in Chicago on August 19. There, ceremonial votes for Harris and her running mate will take place, marking a raucous celebration of Harris’s journey from state politics to the top of the Democratic ticket.
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock captured the significance of Harris’s nomination at a rally in Atlanta. Addressing a crowd of 10,000, Warnock said, “Think about this: her dad is of Jamaican descent, her mother’s of South Asian descent and then she went to the great Howard University, worked in California, worked in the United States Senate. That is the American story. She brings all of those strands together. She sees us because, in a real sense, she is all of us.”
As Harris prepares to make history, the Democratic Party rallies behind her, ready to take on the challenges ahead in the fight for the White House.
