12 November 2008
Legally, U.S. Presidential Election Not Yet Complete
Electoral College votes must be cast and certified by Congress
Washington — Although President-elect Obama is preparing for his administration, most people know he will not take office as the 44th president of the United States until January 20, 2009, when he takes the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
What many do not realize is that he will not be elected officially until January 6, 2009.
In the general election November 4, Barack Obama earned at least 365 Electoral College votes — well above the 270 needed to win the presidency. His victories came from all the states that supported the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. But they also came from nine states that had supported the 2004 Republican presidential candidate — Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Nevada and Virginia.
Obama also picked up one Electoral College vote from a traditionally “red” (Republican) state, Nebraska. Most states award all of their votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote, but Maine and Nebraska award each of their votes by congressional district. For the first time in history, Nebraska split its votes — awarding four to John McCain and one from the 2nd Congressional District to Obama. (See “After the Election, Life Returns to Normal in Lincoln, Nebraska.”)
As prescribed in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. presidents are not elected directly by the people but by a group of designated citizens known as electors. This group of electors makes up the Electoral College.
Each state’s Electoral College delegation is equal to the state’s number of senators — two from each state — plus its number of delegates in the House of Representatives. The size of a House delegation varies by the population of the state, with more populous states having more representatives. The District of Columbia, which has no voting representation in Congress, has three Electoral College votes.
The process for selecting electors varies from state to state, but usually the political parties nominate electors at state party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee. On Election Day, the voters in each state, by casting votes for president and vice president, actually are voting for the electors who will vote for the voters' preferred candidate.
NEXT STEPS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
A presidential candidate has been projected a winner in all but one state — Missouri. Most media outlets refer to Missouri as “leaning toward McCain” because the Republican candidate seems likely to win by about 6,000 votes.
Typically, it takes several days for states to count all mail-in absentee ballots. Additionally, many states have not yet counted provisional ballots, which are cast by voters whose eligibility to vote is unclear on Election Day. Before these ballots can be counted, the voters must be deemed eligible.
Each state must certify the Election Day results to make the vote counts official, a process that can take several weeks. Each state sets its own guidelines for certifying results.
Over the next four weeks, states will complete their counts and certify the results. Each state’s governor then must sign a document, known as a “certification of ascertainment,” that must be sent to the National Archives by December 15.
On December 15, the Electoral College convenes to cast its votes. The 538 electors never all gather together — rather each state’s delegation meets at its own statehouse.
There, the electors officially cast their votes for president and vice president. The Constitution requires them to vote for a president and vice president from the same ticket.
Electors in each state are expected to cast their vote for the candidate their state’s voters preferred. About half the states have laws binding an elector to vote for the candidate selected by his or her state’s voters. Occasionally, an elector has voted against his or her state’s wishes, but that vote never has made a difference in the outcome of the election.
Once the votes are cast, “certificates of vote” are sent to the U.S. Senate, the state’s secretary of state, the judge of the district in which the electors have assembled, and the National Archives.
By January 3, 2009, the National Archives will send the certifications to Congress. In what will be one of the first duties of the 111th Congress on January 6, 2009, the House and Senate will count the electoral votes. Then, just two weeks before Obama takes the oath of office, he officially will be elected president.
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