Despite contrary belief, the electoral vote confirms the presidency, not the popular vote. On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the Electoral College officially votes for the President and the Vice President.
The electoral college is made up of electors who are chosen by their respective parties in state conventions. If a Republican wins the popular vote in the state, then the Republican party chooses their electors to vote. So when a person casts their ballot, they’re actually voting for their state elector in the electoral college. The elector votes for whoever wins the popular vote in the state.
Some electors are actually not required to vote according to the popular vote. Only 33 states and Colombia require electors to vote according to the popular vote. With such rules, it is unlikely that an elector will not vote according to the popular vote.
Generally, the number of representatives and senators in each state is how many electors each respective state has. There are a total of 538 electors in the USA. A majority of 270 votes are needed to be confirmed to the presidential seat.
On 12/14/20, there was an electoral college meeting to confirm the winner of the 2020 election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Biden officially won when he received 306 electoral votes while Trump received 232 votes. Additionally, Joe Biden won the popular vote by seven million as well.
The meeting was extremely secure, especially in light of the pandemic. All the electors were required to have paper ballots, not electronic ballots. However, Nevada was the only state that held a virtual meeting this year. While electors usually met at the State Capitol, some states such as Delaware chose to convene at a gym.
After this process, the electors and the governor generally have to sign off on the results of their votes. These certificates are then sent to various people including the Vice President and the Office of the Federal Register.
Then on January 6th, the Congress holds a joint session meeting to confirm the votes from the electors. It is the new Congress that was just elected who runs this process. There is usually no debate at these meetings unless a House member or a Senator lodges concerns for their state’s results. Each Congressman can only speak once for five minutes. This has only occurred twice in history, and both were unsuccessful.
Usually, the Vice President presides over these meetings. Whoever reaches the majority first by 270 votes officially wins the election. The former Vice President then announces the election results and the inauguration proceeds on January 20th.
