At state capitols throughout the U.S. Tuesday, the presidential electors can be gathering to forged their electoral votes, formalizing President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris within the 2024 election.
It’s largely a ceremonial vote, the following step after the presidential election. When Americans forged their ballots on Election Day, they’re technically voting for a slate electors dedicated to supporting their selection for president and vp.
How does the Electoral College work?
The guidelines governing the Electoral College are outlined by the 12th Amendment.
Presidential electors, in keeping with the modification, “shall title of their ballots the particular person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the particular person voted for as Vice-President, they usually shall make distinct lists of all individuals voted for as President, and of all individuals voted for as Vice-President, and of the variety of votes for every, which lists they shall signal and certify.”
The political events select the slate of electors forward of the final election.
After Election Day, all of the votes are counted after which licensed by every state. According to the 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act, the deadline to certify the outcomes is about at six days earlier than the electors are scheduled to satisfy, historically on the primary Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December.
The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 additionally requires that each state determine a state official — the governor until specified in any other case — to be answerable for submitting the “certificates of ascertainment” that identifies the state’s electors and features a safety characteristic.
What have been the 2024 Electoral College outcomes?
Trump received 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226. See state-by-state results here and under.
Nationally, Trump also won the popular vote, successful 77.2 million votes to Harris’ 75 million.
How many electoral votes does every state have?
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and a majority of 270 is required to grow to be president.
Each state’s electoral votes are equal to the variety of representatives they’ve within the House, plus two senators.
While the variety of Electoral College votes has remained at 538 since 1964, the variety of votes per state modifications to match congressional apportionment after the decennial census. Between the 2020 election and the 2024 election, Texas gained two Electoral College votes, whereas 5 different states — Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — gained one electoral vote every. Six states misplaced an electoral vote: California, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The map under reveals the modifications by state between the 2020 election and the 2024 election.
Does every elector need to vote with the state election outcomes?
Forty-eight states and Washington, D.C., are winner-take-all, so the winner of the favored vote within the state wins all the state’s electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska allocate their electors primarily based on the winner of the favored vote inside every Congressional District after which two “at-large” electors are decided primarily based on winner of the statewide standard vote.
The electors are speculated to vote in accordance with the result of the favored vote of their state. The Constitution doesn’t require electors to vote with the winner of the favored vote, however most states have legal guidelines that nullify the votes of “faithless electors.” The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that states can punish these “faithless electors.”
According to FairVote, there have been 90 “deviant” votes forged by electors for president because the founding of the Electoral College, though the vast majority of these have been because of the demise of a celebration’s nominee relatively than a real deviation from the voters’ intent.
There have additionally been 75 faithless electors for vp, for a complete of 165 faithless electors all through historical past, in keeping with FairVote.
After the 2020 election, so-called “faux” Republican electors in seven battleground states received by President Biden met anyway and forged phony votes for Trump. State prison prices have been filed in opposition to faux electors in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. In charging Trump for attempting the overturn the election results, particular counsel Jack Smith mentioned these faux electors have been a part of a plan to overturn the election, orchestrated by pro-Trump attorneys with Trump’s help. Those prices have been dismissed since Trump’s victory within the 2024 election.
What’s subsequent after the Electoral College certification?
After the outcomes are signed and licensed, they’re despatched to Harris, appearing because the president of the Senate. The vote certificates have to be acquired by the fourth Wednesday in December, which this yr is Dec. 25. The archivist then transmits the units of certificates to Congress on or earlier than the brand new Congress meets on Jan. 3, 2025.
On Jan. 6, 2025, Congress meets in a joint session to depend the Electoral College votes, overseen by Harris. After the votes are counted, the vp pronounces the winner of the election.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will take the oath of workplace on the inauguration at midday on Jan. 20, 2025.
