One date, “the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December,” is when the electoral college meets to cast ballots for program. EveryLegalVote is a data driven approach to aggregating suspected fraud information for the 2020 US election to help preserve the integrity of our electoral process. If you've voted in past U.S. elections or have taken a history class, you'll have an idea of what the Electoral College is. The Congress may determine when the Electors are chosen and the day on which the Electors must vote. A handful of Democratic electors attempted to … This year, we've had an unprecedented challenge to our election with the pandemic. This is the official count and can take up to 10 days after polling day to receive postal votes. In recent elections, the tellers have simply noted that the certificates appear valid and read the votes, but previously, they would read the entire certificate. Florida At the end of the joint session, he graciously read out his narrow loss to George W. Bush: 271-266. The President was winning this state on election night by 100,000 votes. (If you watch a recording, you’ll notice that attendance at this joint session is higher than for a typical House or Senate debate, but not as high as it normally is for something like the annual State of the Union address.). And if voters get their ballots in now on time and follow the instructions closely for filling out their ballots, they shouldn't have any problems regardless of anything a court does. The U.S. Code specifies the procedure in much greater detail. Thus, the meetings to cast Electoral College votes and the joint session of Congress to count them are still important events. 1. Healthcare workers in UK could receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccination by next week South Carolina States must appoint their electors before the Electoral College meets to formally cast its votes. New Mexico SHAPIRO: Tell us what those unofficial results are based on that people are so accustomed to treating as if they are the final word. The U.S. Code does not provide specific procedural vehicles in the case of the presidential election going to the House or the vice presidential election to the Senate. But it can be very important: if no candidate receives 270 electoral votes for either President or Vice President, the Constitution provides for Congress to make the choice. In the 2001 joint session, a similar scene played out. These three governments that were still under Reconstruction and occupied by Federal troops charged with protecting the new Black citizens (former slaves) of those states. More than 190,000 votes have already been counted, but as Alaska Public Media reported Wednesday, election officials had more than 100,000 ballots still to count. According to the Constitution, as amended, each state’s Electors must meet in their own state to vote. Although lawmakers can object to … As of Dec. 2, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes , 36 more than needed to win. When we are this close to an election and many have already voted, should voters worry that a court might decide a case in a way that could invalidate their vote? Congress has legislated on both these points. Those cast such votes are called “faithless electors” since they fail to vote for the state’s winning candidate. Electors cannot vote for a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate who both hail from an elector’s home state. The new Congress is sworn in on January 3, and their first order of business is organizing the Chamber, electing their officers, and, in the House, passing the rules by which they will be governed. During a session of the House or Senate, Members typically have the option to make a number of different motions that require the presiding officer to hold a vote. And it's caused a large number of Americans to switch to voting by mail or absentee ballots. And when Vice President Pence, acting as the President of the Senate, reads out the results of the electoral ballots of each state and the District of Columbia on January 6, 2021, the United States will have completed its 59th presidential election. Where does the 2020 electoral count stand? Wyoming. Which means he's a … §7) … The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes. However, something went wrong and Jefferson and Burr tied, meaning the House had to select between the two. The Sausage Factory blog is a Congressional Institute project dedicated to explaining parliamentary procedure, Congressional politics, and other issues pertaining to the legislative branch. For instance, in Virginia, where the Congressional Institute is located, the Virginia Code requires that the electors meet at the Virginia Capitol in Richmond at noon on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. He was replaced by one of the other Supreme Court Justices, all of whom were Republicans. The House Sergeant-at-Arms addresses the Speaker, announcing the arrival of the President of the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate and the Senate. Maine Jan. 6: Electoral votes are counted Members of the House and Senate meet jointly for a formal count of electoral votes. On January 6, or another date set by law, the Senate and House of Representatives assemble at 1:00 p.m. in a joint session at the Capitol, in the House chamber, to count the electoral votes and declare the results (3 U.S.C. Live 2020 Presidential election results and maps by state. (These two committees have jurisdiction over Federal elections; hence, the designation of their chairmen and ranking members as tellers.) Electors are people chosen by their state parties prior to the general election who cast their vote for president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The Commission then voted in February of the next year to award Hayes all of the outstanding electoral votes by a margin of 8-7, which would have given Hayes the election 185-184. After voting closes at 7pm, we count ordinary votes. Ohio Idaho Michigan According to the U.S. Code, each state legislature may determine where its Electors meet. According to the U.S. Code, the Electors must make six certificates with the results, sign them, and attach to each of them a list of their names. The Constitution gives a bare outline of how the votes are to be counted once they arrive in Washington, D.C.: The President of the Senate must open the certificates in the presence of both Houses of Congress and the votes are to be counted. The two sides disputed the electoral votes of three delegations, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. Counting votes cast on election day. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. SHAPIRO: So that question of what it means to count every vote is being litigated right now, as we said. Finally, dispersing the electors across the country meant it would be harder for malicious actors to corrupt them. This order continues for the rest of the states. Illinois It was enacted in the aftermath of the disputed 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B … After certification, the slate of presidential electors selected by every state's voters will gather and cast their votes in each state and the District of Columbia on December 14 in 2020. After that, the joint session ends, and the Senate departs from the House Chamber. Massachusetts The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the Electoral College vote. The Federalists ran the incumbent President John Adams along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for Vice President. In 2016, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Senator Bernie Sanders, activist Faith Spotted Eagle, former Representative Ron Paul, and former Governor John Kasich received Electoral College votes for President. Wednesday, January 6: The electoral votes are officially counted by Congress. Should that cast a shadow over the results or indicate any kind of a problem or crisis? To win the White House, a candidate must take an absolute majority of electoral votes, making 270 the magic number. Many focus on the deadline for counting. Rather, since they had a proper objection, their respective Chambers were able to engage in a full debate once they went their separate ways. Wisconsin Since the ratification of the 12th Amendment, the House has decided the Presidency only once, in February 1825, when it elected President John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, who received a plurality of both the Electoral College and popular votes. Utah Rhode Island When the electoral votes are recalculated into each individual vote, this means one electoral college in Wyoming accounts for almost every 200,000 people, but one electoral vote in California accounts for every 700,000 people. Following the election, the new president is typically announced that evening when ballots are sorted and counted. However, the concurrent resolution does little more than recap the procedures that are specified in the Constitution and the U.S. Code. SHAPIRO: What does all of this say about the functioning of our democracy? The Code states that the Congress must convene in a joint session on at 1:00 pm on January 6 following the meetings of the Electors. In 2004, one elector voted for Senator John Edwards for both President and Vice President. Virginia Unlike 2001 and 2017, the 2005 joint session saw an objection that included a signature of both a Representative and Senator, requiring the two Houses to go their separate ways to debate it. Trump won states (and one district in Maine) worth 306 electoral votes (this map). Wednesday, January 20: Inauguration Day! “It is over,” Biden declared in response to one Democrat, drawing roaring laughter and cheers from Republicans. SHAPIRO: Wendy Weiser, vice president of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center, thank you for talking with us today. Hawaii Indeed, from time to time, like this year, it will garner more attention than usual. North Carolina SHAPIRO: To be clear, American law does not require a winner to be declared on November 3. If any Members of Congress find reason to dispute the electoral votes, they must submit their objection in writing, listing the grounds for the objection, and this must be signed by both a Representative and a Senator. If the election results in a 269 to 269 electoral vote tie, then the House of Representatives convenes to choose the president. Voters voted. States electors, whose numbers are based on their total Congressional representation, meet to place official votes for the Electoral College, a system derived back in the 18th century. In-person votes … Georgia Tilden won the popular vote (all of the Southern states had been readmitted to the Union at this point). We publish the preliminary count results as they come in. After announcing the result, he states that the results, along with a copy of the tally, will be entered into the Journals of the House and Senate. Louisiana One of the Democratic-Republican electors was supposed to abstain from voting for Burr, which would have given Jefferson the most votes and the Presidency, while Aaron Burr would finish second and be elected Vice-President. Once this process is done, they give the list of votes and the tally to the President of the Senate, who announces the result. Due to the 20th Amendment, the joint session is conducted by the new Congress whose term begins on January 3, rather than the outgoing lame-duck Congress. By contrast, the meetings of the Electoral College electors across the country and the official counting of their votes probably pass by most people without much notice. South Dakota Instead, they must convene in their state delegations, and each delegation has one vote. As the votes are counted, the data is sent to the secretary of state’s office. Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. That doesn't mean that the system is illegitimate or the result is invalid. WEISER: Absolutely not. In 2016, Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by roughly three million people but won 304 electoral votes and the presidency. Tennessee If two received a majority of the electors appointed but were tied, the House would select from the top two. On the 36th ballot, on February 17, Jefferson finally prevailed, and the country quickly realized it needed to amend the Constitution to prevent such a scenario from happening again. The centuries-old system has states appoint a number of electors equal to the number of representatives they have in Congress to the Electoral College. Texas The 2020 Map Begins with Florida. Title 3, Chapter 1 of the U.S. Code fleshes out the details where the Constitution leaves room for additional regulation. All rights reserved. Oklahoma Sometimes a candidate or party thinks there is reason to dispute the election of a slate of electors to the Electoral College. The Senate’s pages precede the party, bearing the electoral vote certificates in wooden chests. § 15), Congress is required to be in session on January 6 following the election to count the votes, although this date can be changed by law. The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 needed to elect a president, to 232 votes for President Donald Trump. Today, casting and counting Electoral College ballots, following the certification of the votes by each state are not high-profile events, since usually the winner of the election is known well in advance, but the Constitution mandates them. And those come in on paper ballots, and they take longer to process and to count than the ones that are happening on Election Day. None of them, however, secured the signature of a Senator, meaning Vice President Joe Biden, ruled them out of order. Florida and New York are tied for 3rd place, with 29 electoral college votes each. It’s practically impossible to miss a Presidential election in the United States. §15). Both Chambers rejected the objection by wide bipartisan margins. Washington D.C. Print Download PDF. POLITICO's coverage of 2020 races for President, Senate, House, Governors and Key Ballot Measures. The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 In almost all elections, some votes are lost or incorrectly counted due to voter mistakes, faulty voting equipment, or errors by election officials. The Democrats were outraged by the Commission’s decision and tried to filibuster the adoption of the report in the Senate. In 2005, neither Representative Tubbs Jones nor Senator Boxer attempted to make such statements during the joint session. But it does mean we should take a close look at our election rules after this election and put in place some real voting reforms to make sure... WEISER: ...That every eligible ballot counts. But there are steps that voters can and should take to make sure their ballots are not rejected. Electoral votes, out of 538, allocated to each state and the District of Columbia for presidential elections held in 2012, 2016 and 2020, based on congressional representation, which depends on population data from the 2010 Census. In Colorado, the law required that a faithless elector be replaced by an alternate who would follow the results of the popular vote in the state. Alaska The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 needed to elect a president, to 232 votes for President Donald Trump. Refresh for updates Tracking the 2020 electoral college vote Follow along as states cast their votes for president and finalize Joe Biden’s win. This creates a somewhat unusual parliamentary situation: Normally, as the House of Representatives hosts the joint session, the Speaker would preside, but since the Constitution requires the Vice President to count the votes, he does. Maryland As we said at the beginning, the Electoral College has its supporters and detractors. WEISER: No. vote counted 151.1 mil. When the Electors meet in their home states, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution requires that they cast two separate ballots, one for President and another for Vice President. The Vice President is also required to send a messenger to the district judge in receipt of a list of electors, and the judge must deliver it by hand to this messenger. Marie Claire | 11-03. In the 2001 and 2017 joint sessions, where the Representatives did not have signatures from Senators, they attempted to make statements criticizing the electoral votes. In many, if not most, of our elections since 1788, the electoral college vote was little more than the icing on the cake for the new President. Dennis' main complaint was that Article VII, Section 2, of the Pennsylvania Constitution, provides that "The general election shall be held biennially on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November in each even-numbered year," i.e., on one day, and that the legislators of Pennsylvania who voted for a statute that allows vote-counting after that day, according to Dennis, "violated their oath by … The joint meeting must last until the result is announced, except for when the two Houses to meet separately to dispose of objections to certificates. It also specifies that Senators are to be seated to his right and Representatives are seated in the remainder of the Hall. The lists are to be signed, certified, sealed and sent to the President of the Senate (the Vice President of the United States) in Washington, DC. Delaware The electoral votes are counted by the House and Senate on Jan. 6. The selection had seven Republicans and seven Democrats and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, David Davis. This year, the date is Dec. 14. The Democratic-Republicans ran Vice President Thomas Jefferson along with Aaron Burr for Vice President. That’s a pretty impressive run. Returning officers in each electorate make sure the count follows the rules in the Electoral Act. While Jefferson had been on the top of the ticket, many Federalists hated the thought of him being President. But at other times, it has allowed the nation to resolve close and highly contested elections, by providing the means to deliver a definitive result acceptable to the country. It is not hard to see how electors might be less easily intimidated inside their own state capitol. The 2016 election margin, rounded to the nearest 1%, is used where there are no polls. But 2020 polls there show the race is close, and most election ranking sites put it in the toss-up category. Virginia’s electors are also entitled to $50 in compensation, along with reimbursement for mileage. SHAPIRO: We're all accustomed to winners generally being announced on election night. The break in the joint session took about 3 hours and 45 minutes. If any state’s list fails to reach the Vice President by the fourth Wednesday in December, he is to ask that the state’s secretary of state send a list of votes, and the secretary of state must immediately do so via registered mail. And this year, it might very well be the case that in many states, we don't even know who the winners are on election night or for days after Election Day. The last time this happened was in 1968, when Dixiecrat George Wallace won five states in the South. Is that because of any official requirement? President Trump often argues that if there's not a clear winner on election night, the results of the election could be invalid. And on this program, we've talked about some of the high-profile lawsuits, including cases in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina. This provision of law has been known as the “safe harbor” deadline. Indiana ... Nevada and Arizona, but nothing else, he's at 269 electoral votes. The President of the Senate opens the certificates of the states in alphabetical order, starting with Alabama. The party that wins the statewide popular vote gets to send their group of electors to vote in January, when Congress meets and states’ electoral votes are counted. The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to […] Twenty-four states have laws to either discourage the practice or prevent it outright. (In other words, dissatisfaction with the results of the election are not sufficient grounds to reject votes.) In a canvass, election officials verify that each ballot cast in the election was correctly counted. Unlike the Representatives, each Senator votes individually – meaning North Dakota has the same say as California. Representatives do not each cast a vote. Since the 2000 election, House Members objected during three joint sessions, in 2001, 2005, and 2017. Nonetheless, they would lack the same legal protection as those who met the deadline. A set of electoral votes consists of one Certificate of Ascertainment and one Certificate of Vote.