We now know officially the process that will be used to pick the Democratic nominee.  The Rules Committee of the Convention (which is a different body than the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee) formally adopted the rules for the convention in their meeting today.

As an initial point, the rules as a whole have been a work in progress for several months.  The decision of President Biden to withdraw required some modifications, but the general concepts were being drafted before this last weekend.  Additionally, one factor in the timetable set forth in the rules is the issue of Ohio.  While Ohio has passed a statute moving their deadline for certifying a nominee from the current date of August 7, that bill does not take effect until September 1.  As such, it is unclear what the deadline in Ohio really is.  To be on the safe side, the rules are acting as if August 7 is still the deadline.

The other thing to note is that a good chunk of the concepts in the proposal date back to prior conventions.  For a long time, both parties have had rules requiring potential candidates to demonstrate certain levels of support to get their names formally put forward on the convention floor.  In the old days, this process involved floor speeches putting the names “in nomination.”  As such, the rules were designed to prevent spending all night getting every candidate who had the support of a single delegate placed in nomination.   In the past, delegates actually physically signed the pledges of support for the potential candidates with the deadline being shortly before the roll call vote.  With COVID in 2020, the party went to a virtual vote with pledges of support being handled electronically. Continue Reading...