Just over a week ago, shortly after President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, Democratic Party delegates from across the country met virtually to cast their votes for the party’s new nominee.
The delegates almost unanimously chose Vice President Kamala Harris as Biden’s first nominee, sparking a wave of enthusiasm among the Democrats that has not yet abated.
Harris was also the choice in Alabama. The unanimous choice… or almost.
In recent days, the state’s Democrats have been publicly arguing over delegates and hurling insults at each other.
But one serious allegation was somewhat lost in all the confusion: ADP Chairman Randy Kelley and his deputy for minority affairs Joe Reed did not vote for Harris in the virtual vote.
In an email to reporters on Monday, former Sen. Doug Jones said he had been told the couple had not voted for Harris. In a column a day later, al.com columnist Kyle Whitmire reported that Reed and Kelley had not voted for Harris in protest of the delegate voting ordeal.
These are two solid sources.
But even on Tuesday, Kelley reiterated in an email to me that he voted for Harris. In a subsequent phone interview, he reiterated that not voting for her would have been foolish and that he and party leadership had supported Harris from the moment Biden decided to step down.
In a phone call on Thursday, Reed also stressed that he voted for Harris, pointing out that he and Kelley even went so far as to hold a press conference supporting Harris as a candidate the day after Biden announced his decision.
“Kamala Harris has been an integral part of the successes of the Biden-Harris presidency, and those successes are numerous,” Kelley said at the time. “We are better off than we were four years ago.”
Say what you will about Reed and Kelley, but these are strong arguments and strong denials.
So what is the truth?
After several days of research, the best answer I can give you is this: It doesn’t appear that Reed or Kelley cast any ballots, but it’s at least possible that this could have been a mistake.
No one at ADP or DNC who knew about the voting process would comment officially. Their reasoning was simple: “We have a convention coming up and we don’t need an even bigger sit-show than the one we already have,” one delegate told me.
However, without citing the source, they would say the following: It is possible that Reed and Kelley made a mistake in using the virtual system because it was a new system that had never been used before. However, the party had no registered votes by the 5 p.m. deadline.
According to a second source, voting was done via a link emailed to delegates. When a delegate opened the link, a page appeared with a single voting option – a list of names to select. The delegate could select only one name and then submit their ballot electronically.
A person familiar with the process said that some older delegates did indeed have problems with the system, but that ADP assigned various people to call those delegates – or take calls from them – and provide assistance.
On Election Day, there were three ballots left at 4:30 p.m. Two of them belonged to Reed and Kelley, a third source said. A party official contacted Kelley to ask if he needed help, the source said, but Kelley told him the matter was under control.
The deadline passed, and sources at both the DNC and ADP said no ballots were ever received from Reed or Kelley.
This seems like a clear example of a snub. Except for one question: For what purpose?
Whatever you think of Reed and his political tactics, the man rarely does anything without a specific purpose. And even more rarely does he do something quietly.
If he and Kelley had abstained because of the ordeal with the delegates, would he not have said so? Or said anything?
And then there’s the Reeds and Harris story. In 2019, Kamala Harris made it a point to support Reed’s son Steven in his bid to become Montgomery’s first black mayor. The Reeds invited her to an event. And then there’s that whole endorsement thing Kelley did shortly after Biden made his announcement — that happened in the middle of the delegate battle.
Perhaps, as one ADP official put it, “Perhaps they thought they had cast their ballots but didn’t because they were confused by the voting process and didn’t want to accept help.”
If so, then it is important to reiterate that such a scenario is unlikely in a united party where everyone works together to achieve the best outcome and looks after each other. In such a case, someone would have recognised the problem, offered help, that help would have been accepted and the correct voting process would have been followed.
But that is not the party we have now. And so instead we have another embarrassing controversy.
For more on the delegate controversy, listen to this podcast, Alabama Politics This Week. Josh Moon and David Person discuss the ongoing dispute among Alabama Democrats and interview former Alabama Senator Doug Jones. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.
