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WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take an important step in consolidating his November 3 victory over President Donald Trump on Monday (December 14), when all 538 members of the United States Electoral College meet to cast their official votes for president.
This is what to expect.
WHAT HAPPENS ON MONDAY?
The winner of the US presidential election is determined not by popular vote but through a system called the Electoral College, which is mandated by the Constitution and allocates “electoral votes” to the states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in Congress.
Before the elections, the state leaders of the two main parties selected people to serve as “electors.”
Technically, Americans vote for those voters lists, not for the candidates themselves.
Those people are usually party loyalists who have pledged to support the candidate who got the most votes in their state.
Through a series of unsuccessful lawsuits and conversations with state lawmakers, Trump, who has refused to budge and made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, has sought to have lists of voters who pledged to him be certified in states won by Biden. That effort has failed.
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There are 538 electoral votes, which means that 270 are needed to win the election.
Most voters aren’t household names, but this year’s voters include Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate.
Voters meet at a time and place selected by their state legislature. Nevada will meet practically this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most states will broadcast the ceremonies live.
Voters will sign certificates showing their votes, which are sent to government officials, including Vice President Mike Pence. Those certificates are combined with those signed by governors showing popular vote counts, which have already been certified by all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Electoral votes will be officially counted by a new Congress on January 6 next year, in a special joint session chaired by Pence.
At that time, the choice is officially decided. Biden would be sworn in as president during an inauguration ceremony at noon on January 20, a time established in the Constitution.
CAN VOTERS CHALLENGE THE POPULAR VOTE?
Yes, but that’s weird.
In 2016, seven of 538 voters voted for someone who was not the winner of the popular vote for their state, an unusually high number.
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Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia have laws designed to control dishonest or “infidel voters.” Some foresee a financial sanction for a dishonest vote, while others ask that the vote be canceled and the voter replaced.
It would be nearly impossible for unfaithful voters to give Trump a last-minute victory.
Biden, a Democrat, won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, so the Republican president would need 38 voters to defect.
COULD CONGRESS REFUSE TO ACCEPT BIDEN’S ELECTORAL VOTES?
Theoretically possible, but that measure is highly unlikely to work because Democrats control the House of Representatives.
A US law called the Election Counting Act allows individual members of the House and Senate to challenge the results during the Jan.6 special session, a procedure rarely used.
Any objection to the results of a state must be supported by at least one member of the House and one senator.
The two houses would separate to debate the objections before voting on whether to reject the state’s results.
An objection must pass in both houses by a simple majority. If the vote follows party lines, Republicans would not block Biden’s victory because Democrats control the House.
Trump would face obstacles even in the Senate, which is currently controlled by his party. Several Republican senators have called Biden president-elect, and Republican Senator Mitt Romney, his party’s 2012 presidential candidate, told reporters it would be “insane” for Congress to nullify the Electoral College.
