Convention delegates will nominate Harris, again. This time, there's less suspense and more pizzazz

WASHINGTON (AP) — Once more, with feeling!

It’s been nearly two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris officially won the Democratic presidential nomination in an online vote, the first time a nominee was named prior to a party's convention. But the roughly 4,700 delegates charged with picking a nominee to lead the ticket did so from locations around the globe on their laptops and devices in relative isolation from one other. There was none of the pomp and fanfare that usually accompany the selection of the party’s standard-bearer. In other words, it wasn’t very fun.

Democratic party leaders hope to make up for that by holding a ceremonial vote at the Democratic National Convention, which begins Monday in Chicago. Among the major agenda items will be what’s essentially a re-staging of the official presidential nomination vote from early August, mirroring the sometimes-festive, sometimes-raucous roll call votes that have been a staple of in-person party conventions for almost 200 years.

The Democratic National Committee calls it a “celebratory Roll Call” and said in a statement the event would give delegates the opportunity to “celebrate the nomination” of Harris, who is the first woman of color to lead a major party presidential ticket.

Here's how it will work:

Delegates will gather on the convention floor on Tuesday to cast their symbolic votes. It's the third consecutive Democratic convention when the roll call was held on a Tuesday and the first in-person roll call since 2016. For decades, Democrats held their roll call on a Wednesday, the second-to-last day of the convention.

It's been more than 40 years since there's been any question about who the nominee would be heading into a convention roll call vote. Since then, a single candidate has always emerged in each party as the presumptive nominee well before the convention, making the vote itself a foregone conclusion.

That is especially true in the 2024 Democratic convention, since the ceremonial vote is non-binding and cannot undo or modify the results of the earlier, official vote to nominate Harris held over five days in the first week of August. That’s not to say there can’t be some attempt to stage a protest vote from the convention floor, but it won’t have any impact on the outcome.

The result from the official nomination vote from early August was 4,563 votes for Harris and 52 for “present,” the only other option on the ballot. An additional 79 delegates did not cast votes.

Convention organizers have indicated the ceremonial vote will follow the general format of past in-person convention roll calls, with some stylistic flourishes. State delegations will still call out their votes from the convention floor in a session presided over by the convention secretary. These presentations are usually an opportunity for each delegation to express their support for the nominee and the party, while also demonstrating their state pride. This year, each presentation will be accompanied by a song to represent the delegation, similar to a star batter's “walk-up” song at a baseball game. A DJ will play the song on the main stage, while iconic images from each state and territory will be displayed on large screens.

The convention secretary will call on state delegations to vote mostly in alphabetical order, with a few key exceptions. Voting in the celebratory roll call will begin with President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware as a tribute to the president. The roll call vote will conclude with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz's home state of Minnesota and Harris' home state of California. Organizers say the modified order symbolizes the passing of the torch from Biden to Harris and the “next generation of Democratic leadership.”

Modifying the order in which delegations cast their votes is a common tool that both parties have used to choreograph the roll call to allow certain states to play a heightened role in the process.

In past roll call votes at both parties' conventions, the voting temporarily stops once the nominee surpasses the votes needed to win the nomination so that delegates mark the occasion and hold a celebration on the floor. Eventually, the voting resumes until all delegations have voted. Convention organizers have not indicated how or whether delegates would mark the milestone of Harris symbolically clinching the nomination. The distinction is somewhat moot this year, since Harris is already the nominee, based on the official vote held earlier in August.

Delegates will cast symbolic votes in the celebratory roll call for both Harris and Walz, according to a statement from convention officials, a departure from traditional roll calls.

Normally, the vice presidential nominee is officially chosen by delegates through a separate procedure, often on a different day of the convention. Vice presidential nominees of both parties are usually selected by acclamation, or a voice vote by the entire convention delegation, rather than through a separate roll call vote. This separate process is usually a formality, since the identity of the presumptive vice presidential nominee is often known well before the start of the convention.

This year, Walz won the vice presidential nomination in early August. After becoming the presidential nominee, Harris officially nominated Walz to be her running mate, and the convention chair declared Walz the nominee in accordance with party rules. The same procedure was used to nominate Harris as the vice presidential nominee at the 2020 convention.

Harris and Walz became the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees Aug. 6. But each will symbolically accept the nominations in speeches before the full convention. Harris will speak on Thursday, in keeping with both parties' tradition of the nominee addressing the convention on the final night.

Walz will speak on Wednesday night. For decades, the Democratic vice presidential nominee addressed the convention on the final night, just before the presidential nominee. That practice ended in 1996, and the vice presidential nominee's speech has been held on Wednesday night ever since, with the exception of 2012, when it was held on Thursday.

At the 2020 convention, then-candidate Joe Biden won the nomination after delegates cast their votes virtually through a series of elaborate live remote video presentations from every state and U.S. territory, a process created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unique and sometimes quirky nature of the remote presentations quickly became a convention favorite. This year, convention planners said in a statement on Sunday that the celebratory roll call will once again incorporate some live video elements to “showcase the diversity and beauty of America.”

DNC officials first indicated in May that they would conduct a virtual roll call before the convention to clear a potential hurdle in getting the Democratic nominee on the ballot in Ohio. Ohio’s deadline to file for the general election ballot was Aug. 7. 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 an accommodation for the convention 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 moved forward with their virtual roll call as originally planned.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Work continues at the United Center before the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Tony Popelka guides a bag of balloons as preparations are made before the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, stands at the podium at the Democratic National Convention at the United Center Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Balloons are staged to be raised to the ceiling as preparations are made before the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Workers prepare for next week's Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Jaime Harrison, Democratic National Committee chair, watches as preparations are made before the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW YORK (AP) — Suki Waterhouse discovered the Sparklemuffin spider during a late-night scroll.

“He’s wildly colored. He’s cute,” she said. Best of all: He dances. “I felt somewhat akin to him.”

The spider became a foil and a mascot for Waterhouse's sophomore album, “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin,” out Friday.

The release follows the British singer-songwriter's 2022 debut “I Can't Let Go" and her time playing keyboardist Karen Sirko in “Daisy Jones and the Six,” the Amazon Prime series based on Taylor Jenkins Reid's bestselling novel about a 1970s rock band. The record's 18 songs cover heartache and the search for a “Big Love,” but also the 32-year-old's time in the industry, which she entered as a teen, modeling first. The project wrapped just days before the birth of her daughter, now six months old, with partner Robert Pattinson.

After celebrating the release with stops at the Michael Kors fashion show and the MTV Video Music Awards, Waterhouse talked with The Associated Press about making the album while pregnant and how playing Sirko motivated her to fully embrace her music career.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

WATERHOUSE: I think the physical limitations were something that shaped the album, in a really good way. It was sort of amazing to not be able to leave the house for a couple of months. I mean, I really got to focus in a way that I don’t know if sometimes you are able to when the world keeps moving.

I’m someone that loves working at home. All of my music that I've made pretty much has been made in home studios — big studios can freak me out a little bit. There’s something especially about being in Los Angeles, there’s just so many talented people around you, so you’re literally able to call up the best guitarist and he lives 15 minutes away. So it was very much that feeling of having awesome people just flow in and out of my house, with also a good deadline. It wasn't just the deadline of — finish the record. It was, we must finish the record. There will be a baby here if we don’t.

WATERHOUSE: It's funny, when I wrote that song, I kind of had that loop going around — (singing) “call me a model, an actress, whatever” — and it was something that I thought was kind of self-deprecating and funny. But I also felt like I would want to be in my car singing that. It's dramatic, it's glamorous.

I love consuming stories about people's lives written by them, I love reading a memoir, I love reading from someone's perspective what really went down, what really happened. That song, I guess, I was a little afraid after I wrote it — like, I've been trying to get away from being called this, from having these kind of labels — and then I think that was why I ended up writing it. There were a couple of months where I was like, “I'm not going to have this as a single. Let's sweep that one under the carpet.” And then it's always those ones actually, that eventually, you're like, “No, yeah, this is reclaiming those words.”

Especially with the video, I wanted to have just like a ton of fun and play into the stereotypes. I actually feel very empowered by the song. The video is like, really funny and I hope everyone watches it because it's just like a giggle. I really feel proud of that.

WATERHOUSE: Looking at the book, she was cool and calm and collected and she knew exactly what she wanted to do and she knew exactly who she was. She wanted to be on tour for the rest of her life. And you know, there was a reason why I was drawn to the part. I think whenever you step into a role, you do just absorb — that’s the job. There’s just so much to be gained from that experience.

Something about playing her gave me that nudge, that voice in my head that was like: “Right, now is that time that you need to go and make that album that you’ve been wanting to make for years and years and years, that you’ve been working towards. You’ve got the songs, they’re all there, go and make the album.” Also, playing a role where we were all in a band, hanging out in Sound City Studios everyday, I was kind embracing that life of a musician. I had this hole in my heart like, that’s what I want to be doing too.

WATERHOUSE: (Laughs) Yeah, I guess. She’s always there, she’s always there.

WATERHOUSE: I feel like it’s difficult not to. When I did Taylor (Swift)’s show the other day, I went straight into the studio afterward. You're so inspired watching that show, so I was like, “I want to make a stadium song.” I ended up making a slow ballad, but obviously it’s still super inspiring.

The first record I made, I had so many voices in my head — like, “Don't do anything too upbeat.” Those voices, a lot of those insecurities, are kind of gone now, in many ways.

When I wrote “My Fun,” that was the first kind of upbeat song that I’d done that still felt like it was true to my palette and my world and that I liked. And I was like, “OK, I can write an upbeat song and not be cringed out by it.” And that is so fun, to do an upbeat song on stage. So 1,000%, from this record, I can’t wait to be going on tour and have those different songs that are a little more upbeat.

WATERHOUSE: There’s nothing better than having a bunch of new songs that you love so much and you feel like you’re putting together a show that’s like a whole level up, that you couldn’t have even dreamed of a year ago, you know?

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)

Suki Waterhouse poses for a portrait on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP)