WASHINGTON (AP) – Presidential voters across the United States meet Monday to formally elect Joe Biden as the next president of the country.
Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Election College. In fact, voters meet in 50 states and the District of Columbia to register their ballots. The results will be sent to Washington and will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence at a joint meeting of Congress on January 6.
Voter turnout has garnered more attention this year than usual as President Donald Trump continues to refuse to acknowledge the election and continue to make allegations of fraud.
Biden plans to address the nation on Monday night, after voters cast their ballots. Trump, meanwhile, has been clinging to false claims that he won the election, but is undermining Biden’s presidency before it even begins. “No, I’m worried about the country having an illegal president. I’m worried about a president who has failed and lost badly,” Trump was quoted as saying in a Fox News interview Saturday.
Following several weeks of Republican legal challenges that were easily dismissed by judges, Trump and Republican allies last week sought to set aside 62 election votes for Biden in four states in the Supreme Court, which may have cast doubt on the results.
The judges rejected the attempt on Friday.
Biden received 306 election votes, compared to 232 for Trump. 270 votes are required to select.
In 32 states, and in the District of Columbia, laws are needed to ensure that the people vote for the winner. The arrangement was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in July.
Voters always vote for the state winner somehow because they are usually dedicated to their political party. There is no reason to expect any shortcomings this year. Leading voters include Georgia’s Democrat Stacey Abrams and South Dakota’s Republican government Christie Noim.
Voting by paper ballot is less technical. Voters each cast one vote for the president and vice president.
The Electoral College was the result of a compromise between those who supported the election of the President by popular vote during the drafting of the Constitution and those who opposed giving the people the power to elect their leader.
Each state receives an equal number of voters for their total seats in Congress: both senators and the House of Representatives no matter how many members there are. Washington, D.C. has three votes under the 1961 constitutional amendment. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, states give all of their electoral college votes to those who win the popular vote in their state.
The deal struck by the country’s founders has produced five elections in which the president did not win the popular vote. Trump is the most recent example in 2016.
This year, Biden topped Trump by more than 7 million votes.
Then there is one more step: inauguration.