2020 Democratic National Convention

• Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin[6][10]

• Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado (withdrawn after finalist selection)[6]
• Toyota Center, Houston, Texas[6][11]
• American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida (with some meetings at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida)[6][12]

With the exception of Milwaukee, each of the finalist cities was a past host of a Democratic convention. Denver hosted in both 1908 and 2008. Houston hosted in 1928. Miami hosted in 1972. In addition, both Houston and Miami have also previously hosted Republican National Conventions, with Houston hosting it once in 1992 and Miami having hosted both the 1968 and 1972 RNCs.

• Atlanta, Georgia[13]
• Birmingham, Alabama[14][15]
• Las Vegas, Nevada (withdrew in order to focus on bid for 2020 RNC)[5]

Atlanta had previously hosted the 1988 convention.

On June 24, it was announced that the convention had been downsized and would be held at Milwaukee's Wisconsin Center instead of its originally planned venue, Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum.[16][17][18]

The change of location will make this the first major party convention held in a convention center since the 1996 Republican National Convention, and the first Democratic convention to be held in such a venue since the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention has been delayed to August 17–20.[3] The DNC authorized its convention planners on May 12 to research alternative methods for participants to cast votes, considering that the DNC may decide to hold the entire convention online.[23]

On June 24, it was announced that the convention was to be downsized. The venue was shifted from the Fiserv Forum to Wisconsin Center. Biden will still accept his nomination in Milwaukee, but instead, entire convention will now feature Milwaukee as a hub city for the major convention events. As such, it will consist of what the DNC says will be "curated content from Milwaukee and other satellite cities, locations, and landmarks across the country".[17][4]

All official business will be conducted remotely. Organizers canceled official parties and events scheduled to be held in Milwaukee before and coinciding with the convention.[17]

While the primary purpose of political conventions is, and always was, to decide who the nominees for president and vice president are to be, the secondary purpose was always that of socializing. Entertainment is also a major element of the event, which in the past has included a house band for the main venue, theater, culinary experiences, and large amounts of motivational speaking.

Indeed, the convention experience for attendees at the venue itself is extremely different from that for the viewer at home. With live coverage of the event limited, outside of the three major news networks and C-Span, to the keynote and acceptance speeches, the challenge to the DNC, is how to create a riveting TV experience that will shoot the former Vice President's poll numbers through the roof and keep them there.

With social distancing still paramount to ensure the safety of the tens of thousands of people who were due to attend the main venue in Milwaukee, will not be able to do so, alternative methods are planned for a series of satellite venues across the country.[4]

While the convention will be anchored in Milwaukee, the events will be held in a dozen or so satellite sites spread out across the nation. From there, the delegations will transmit their votes on the floor of the Wisconsin Center, where a representative will announce the votes to relevant officials at the chair in the main venue.[27]

Superdelegates are delegates to the convention who are automatically chosen by the party, rather than by the results of primaries and caucuses. While technically unpledged, many of them have informally pledged themselves to a predesignated front-runner in previous elections. During the 2016 Democratic primaries, most of these favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.[28] The superdelegate system is controversial among Democrats, and supporters of both Clinton and Sanders have called for their removal in 2020.[29][30]

The Unity Reform Commission, created after the 2016 election, recommended[31] that the number of 2020 superdelegates be drastically reduced. As of July 2018, the DNC plans to revoke voting rights for superdelegates on the first ballot. They will be able to affect the selection of the presidential and vice presidential nominees only if voting continues to another ballot,[32] which has not happened since 1952 for the presidential nomination and 1956 for the vice-presidential nomination.[33]

Politico reported on January 31, 2020, that a small group of DNC members has been discussing plans to weaken Bernie Sanders's campaign by changing the rules to allow superdelegates to vote on the first ballot, in what would be a reversal of the reforms made following the 2016 election. However, prominent former DNC members, including Donna Brazile and Don Fowler, have argued against changing the rules again, while DNC chair Perez has denied the possibility of a rule change.[34]

The number of delegates allocated to each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., are based on, among others, the proportion of votes each state gave to the Democratic candidate in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections. A fixed number of pledged delegates are allocated to each of the five U.S. territories and Democrats Abroad.[35]

The Democratic National Committee's 2020 selection rules state that any candidate who is no longer running loses the statewide delegates they have won and those delegates are then reallocated to candidates still in the race. However, the interpretation of this rule in 2020 races might be different than the interpretation in past races.[36] In previous elections, such as the 2008 presidential primary, candidates would suspend their candidacies rather than formally withdraw, allowing their already pledged delegates to attend the convention and pick up new ones along the way.[37] They would then formally withdraw when it was too late to reallocate the delegations.

Some controversy occurred in April 2020 when the New York state presidential primary was canceled over the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York State Board of Elections then cancelled the Democratic primary, in part to protect public health, but citing a state law allowing cancellation of elections that are uncontested.

The Sanders campaign stated that Sanders had not withdrawn and neither Sanders nor the DNC had requested the cancellation, and demanded that the DNC overturn the decision or disqualify New York's delegates.[38]

On April 28, Andrew Yang and several Yang delegates filed a federal lawsuit against the New York State Board of Elections over the same cancellation.[39] Oral arguments were heard on May 4.[40] On May 5, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled that Governor Andrew Cuomo's decision to scrap the state's primary violated the 1st and 14th Amendment rights of presidential contenders who have ended their campaigns, and the Board of Elections issued a ruling requiring New York to hold its presidential primary in June, and to restore Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other former presidential candidates to the ballot.[41]

Due to the virus, the method of drafting the platform changed radically. A page was set up in which testimony from the general public might be taken.[42]

The Platform Drafting Committee Chair is Atlanta, GA Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

Public hearings were live-streamed on the DNCC’s YouTube channel during the week of July 1 on the following topics:

• Monday, June 29 from 5-8pm ET: Addressing the COVID-19 Health Crisis and Building Back Better
• Wednesday, July 1 from 5-8pm ET: A Vision for a More Equitable Future
• Thursday, July 2 from 5-8pm ET: Restoring the Soul of America

The full Platform Drafting Committee will meet on July 15th

These are to be published in late July.

The table below reflects the presumed delegate count as per the 2020 Democratic primaries.

As of January 2020, the following overall number of pledged delegates is subject to change, as possible penalty/bonus delegates (awarded for each states scheduled election date and potential regional clustering) may be altered.[43]

Candidates who have suspended their campaigns without having received any pledged or superdelegate endorsements, as well as those who've suspended their campaigns and subsequently lost their endorsements to other candidates, are not included in the table below.

Since 1996, uncontested balloting has been done by a full roll call vote. In 2008, the balloting was stopped short by agreement of the two candidates (there was a "secret ballot" earlier in the day so delegates for the losing side, in this case, Hillary Clinton, could cast their votes). In 2016, there were attempts to do away with the roll call, but the Sanders campaign refused this idea.[46]

Neither the Democratic nor Republican national conventions have had a multi-ballot vote for president since 1952,[47] or vice president since 1956.

This time, voting will be done remotely from satellite locations and be reported in Milwaukee.