Electoral College casts its votes for president. Now what happens?
The Electoral College has cast its votes for president — another key step toward President-elect Joe Biden taking office.
Electors met Monday to vote at staggered times across the country, starting at 10 a.m. ET, according to CBS News. Biden has received 302 of his expected 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, with Hawaii’s four votes left to be allocated at 7 p.m. ET. A candidate needs 270 to win.
The Associated Press and other news outlets projected Biden the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7 after he crossed the 270 threshold. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in Jan. 20, 2021.
It’s standard for the media to call the apparent winner of races before results are made official. Those projected results — usually available on election night or a few days after in this year’s case — are considered preliminary until they’re certified, which can take up to a month.
The several steps between the media calling the presidential race and the next president taking the oath of office usually don’t get much attention. But they’ve been in the spotlight this year as Trump and his allies have continued to push baseless claims about widespread election fraud as they’ve attempted to challenge the outcome.
Now, the Electoral College has further solidified Biden’s win with its vote.
How did the vote work?
When voters cast a ballot for a presidential candidate, they are technically voting for a group of electors selected by that candidate’s political party.
Those electors then meet on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, in this case Dec. 14, to cast their votes based on who won their state’s popular vote. All but two states — Maine and Nebraska —allocate all of their electors to the candidate who won the most votes, CBS reports.
Each state’s share of the total 538 electors is based on population.
The Electoral College votes comes after states have certified, or officially verified, their election results and handed in their certificates of ascertainment and the names of their electors to Congress.
Electors could, but are unlikely to, cast a vote for the candidate they were not nominated to support, NPR reports. These electors are known as “faithless electors” and many states have rules in place to penalize them. Others require their electors to vote for the candidate chosen by the majority of voters in the state.
If any electors stray, it could shift the final electoral count slightly.
What happens next?
Electors sign “Certificates of the Vote” after they cast their votes, according to the nonprofit think tank Bipartisan Policy Center.
These certificates must then be handed in to the president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence in this case, the archivist, and the state’s district court judge and their secretary of state by the fourth Wednesday in December, or Dec. 23, the BPC says.
Congress then counts the votes during a joint session on Jan. 6 and declares an official winner when one presidential ticket reaches 270 votes. The incumbent vice president announces the winner.
The winner is then sworn in at noon on Jan. 20, 2021, which is the constitutionally set Inauguration Day.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Electoral College casts its votes for president. Now what happens?."
