A surprising number of people sent questions to me today asking whether the Democratic Party is required to hold a roll call vote at its convention this August. Rather than answer individually, I thought I would use this space to express my view on the point.

My view: I do not know. The main reason I do not know is that I do not know what the current Party rules and bylaws require. But there would be little point in researching what the current rules or bylaws require because the Party can modify its rules and bylaws via any number of mechanisms, so regardless of what the rules or bylaws say, whether there will be a roll call vote remains an open question.

At the fundraiser summit held at the Mayflower last night, Senator Obama was asked whether he supported or expected a roll call vote at the convention. He did not answer the question directly. When he was pressed by the questioner for a direct answer, he replied that he was not going to "negotiate" the convention at the Mayflower event last night.

Apparently, then, Senator Obama does not know or did not know last night - or chose not to tell us of his knowledge - whether there will be a roll call vote at the convention in Denver.

So, I don't know and Senator Obama did not enlighten the questioner last night. Dr. Dean has not spoken on the point. Senator Obama told us he was proud to be the leader of the Democratic Party. Dr. Dean has not resigned as chair of the Party. They would seem to be the ones who could answer the roll call question clearly. I will write to each of them for an answer.

Meanwhile, though, I want to say that the time has indeed come for unity. Unity among Democrats.

All Democrats should unify in expecting the Democratic Party to abide by democratic principles and procedures at its convention this summer. I believe that those principles require the highest standards of transparency and meticulously fair procedures. Indeed, I believe this so strongly that I am working hard to help Democrats unite in the name of democracy - a cause that has little or nothing do with which particular candidate any particular Democrat voted for during this primary season.

In the name of keeping the Democratic Party democratic, I have helped to organized The Denver Group. Click here to learn all about The Denver Group: a cause we can all get behind!