DNC virtual roll call kicks off, teeing up Kamala Harris' nomination | This is how it will work

CHICAGO -- A virtual voting process kicks off on Thursday morning to formally designate Vice President Kamala Harris the official presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

Harris was already deemed the presumptive nominee by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday after she emerged from a process, laid out by the party's Rules Committee, as the only qualified candidate.

The results of the virtual roll call -- opening at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday -- will be announced after 6 p.m. ET on Monday, which is the deadline for convention delegates to virtually submit votes. Delegates will get a secure ballot to cast a vote "on a rolling basis." Delegates can cast those ballots by email or can ask to vote by phone.

Thus, Harris' official nomination will come two weeks ahead of Democrats' in-person convention starting in Chicago on Aug. 19.

How will the virtual process work?

The virtual process is expected to mimic the nominating and voting that is held at the Democratic National Convention every four years, with a ceremonial roll call still slated to be held in-person in Chicago.

Nearly 4,700 delegates are using an electronic voting method the party says is similar to one used to tally virtual roll call votes in the 2020 convention, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the party to conduct much of its official business remotely.

"Democratic delegates from across the nation made their voices heard, overwhelmingly backing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee," a statement from DNC Chair Jamie Harrison and DNCC Chair Minyon Moore released on Tuesday night said.

"We move to this final stage of our nomination process with unprecedented momentum and unity across our party. We stand united in our mission to elect a Democratic nominee who has the experience, the wisdom, and the bold determination to lead our country, and we stand united in our mission to defeat Donald Trump once again ... We look forward to celebrating together with all of our delegates in Chicago," they added.

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In order to have been qualified for the presidential nomination, candidates needed to submit a declaration of candidacy and to get 300 delegates to send in virtual signatures supporting them. That window to submit materials concluded on Tuesday.

Three other Democrats who are not Harris had indicated their interest to run for the top of the ticket: Robert C. "Robby" Wells, Jr., Gibran Nicholas and Ralph Robbie Hoffman.

The DNC said on Tuesday that these three individuals did not make the threshold of 300 delegate signatures to qualify for the ballot.

According to the party, "3,923 delegates from across the country petitioned to put Vice President Harris on the ballot for the Democratic nomination, and Vice President Harris secured the support of 99% of participating delegates, with 84% of total delegates submitting a signature during the petitioning phase."

RELATED: DNC Rules Committee formalizes nomination process

Any vote cast for someone other than Harris in the roll call will be counted as "present."

Who gets to vote?

Among those voting are pledged delegates selected through state primaries and caucuses as well as more than 700 others who have automatic delegate slots by virtue of the elected office or party positions they hold. These include Democratic governors, U.S. senators and representatives, former presidents and DNC members.

These automatic delegates, known informally as superdelegates, were the subject of much debate within the party for years because of their potential to influence the outcome of a close nomination fight despite not having been selected for their posts through a public process. Historically, however, superdelegates have never backed a candidate for the nomination other than the one who also earned the majority of pledged delegates.

After the 2016 election, the party passed changes that allowed superdelegates to vote only on the second and subsequent ballots. Party rules do allow superdelegates to vote on the first ballot if a candidate has either won a majority of pledged delegates through the primary and caucus process, like Biden did, or submitted the signatures of a majority of total delegates, as Harris did.

What will the results look like?

The DNC has not provided details on how or when the results of the roll call vote will be released.

It's also unclear whether the party will provide a rolling tally of the votes as they are cast, similar to how the roll call is conducted in person on the convention floor, or if it will release only the final tally. The DNC also has not said if it will provide a state-by-state breakdown.

What about the nominee for vice president?

Once Harris officially wins the nomination, the new convention rules allow her to place the name of her pick for vice president into nomination, at which point the convention chair can declare that candidate as the vice presidential nominee.

Harris said Tuesday she had not yet decided on her No. 2. But she, and whomever she selects, will head out on a seven-state swing of key battlegrounds, including Pennsylvania, Arizona and North Carolina, next week.

Why is this happening before the convention?

The DNC initially decided in May to hold a virtual roll call because of uncertainty over deadlines to get on the ballot in Ohio.

Ohio's deadline to file for the general election ballot is Aug. 7, two weeks before Democratic delegates would have crowned the nominee at the convention.

The state legislature eventually rectified the issue, but the DNC has argued that Republican lawmakers in Ohio are acting in bad faith and that the Democratic candidate needs to be nominated earlier than the convention to avoid legal issues. Ohio leaders have denied this allegation.

Although the deadline had been modified in previous presidential election years to accommodate late-summer conventions of both parties, this year state Republicans initially planned to enforce the existing deadline, with one GOP lawmaker calling the scheduling bind " a Democratic problem."

The Republican-controlled Legislature did eventually make the change at the behest of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, but the law does not go into effect until Aug. 31. Citing concerns that Ohio Republicans could still try to block their candidate from getting on the ballot despite the legislative fix, DNC officials decided to move forward with their virtual roll call as originally planned.

The process received more scrutiny after President Joe Biden's debate performance in late June, which sparked a contentious debate within the party over if he should continue running for president and accusations that the virtual roll call process would shuttle him to the nomination regardless. (The DNC at the time emphasized that the process had been greenlit before the debate.)

Once Biden stepped out of the race and endorsed Harris, the debate around the virtual roll call mostly receded, although some still called for a less complicated nominating process. It took only about two days into her new candidacy for Harris to secure enough non-binding commitments from delegates around the country who said that they'd vote for her to assure she'd clinch the nomination.

"I don't like doing a virtual roll call vote on principle, but I understand the need for one this year," Will Thompson, a delegate from North Dakota who has said he is supporting Harris, told ABC News.

He hopes future party conventions could be scheduled earlier in order to not run into deadline and timing issues with getting on state ballots.

"I trust the security of the virtual roll call process, but as someone who was unable to go to the 2020 DNC in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking forward to doing everything in person this year ... it won't dampen my extremely high enthusiasm for the event and election writ large," Thompson said.

What about the speeches and balloons?

The roll call at the 2020 convention was also held virtually, although that process featured remote video presentations from every state and territory.

This year's official voting will not feature similar real-time presentations. Instead, party officials say that they will hold a ceremonial roll call vote during the convention, mimicking the traditional ritual of state delegations announcing their votes from the convention floor with much fanfare.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.