President Biden’s loyalists are on track to lock in his nomination online, before the Democratic National Convention meets on Aug. 19 in Chicago, but some Democrats are exploring a way to replace him on the ticket.
The nomination process is slated to begin on Friday, when Democratic National Convention officials will take steps to greenlight an online, multiday virtual vote by the party’s nearly 4,000 delegates. Voting would begin as early as Sunday to formally nominate Mr. Biden.
The move would all but thwart any attempts to replace the 81-year-old president at the convention, as he faces a steady drumbeat of calls by party lawmakers to step aside.
“The voting will be open across all or most of next week before votes are tallied,” said Josh Putnam, party rules expert and founder of FHQ Strategies LLC, a nonpartisan political consulting venture. “In other words, there will not be just one day of voting, but a window.”
Polls show former President Donald Trump leading Mr. Biden in all of the battleground states. Some Democrats are pushing to replace him at the top of the ticket. Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27 and regular gaffes made in subsequent interviews haven’t done much to restore faith in his candidacy.
The vast majority of delegates, all vetted by the Biden campaign, are nonetheless expected to vote for the president. If it happens online as planned, the president could have the nomination wrapped up before the end of the month.
Some Democrats are now trying to stop it.
A letter signed by roughly 20 Democrats calls on the DNC to halt the plan to nominate Mr. Biden virtually, calling it “a terrible idea,” and “unnecessary and unprecedented.”
The Washington Times has reported the DNC is forging ahead with the online nomination and was slated to take those steps after July 13, when Indiana finalized its delegate list.
Party officials devised the plan earlier this year, when it appeared Ohio wouldn’t change its Aug. 7 filing deadline for presidential candidates to appear on the ballot, which would have made the nomination at the Chicago convention too late for Mr. Biden.
The state changed the candidate filing deadline to Sept. 1, but the DNC in a June meeting nonetheless advanced the online nomination plan, claiming it was necessary in case the GOP tried to block the extended ballot deadline in court.
“This is the best way to ensure that bad-faith, mega-extremist lawmakers in Ohio or in any other state cannot subvert the will of the voters,” said James Roosevelt, co-chairman of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Neither Mr. Roosevelt nor Democratic National Convention Chair Minyon Moore have responded to an inquiry about the online vote. A DNC spokeswoman also failed to respond to a media request.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.