The Electoral College Vote Live: The latest news as states prepare to confirm Biden’s victory

While electoral votes usually involve some pomp and circumstance, most events this year will be drastically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In Michigan, for example, 16 voters are allowed only one guest; Arizona turned its party from the Capitol into a modest state facility and narrowed the guest list. At least one state, Nevada, plans to conduct its electoral vote almost entirely.

The voter selection process varies by state. In some countries, parties choose their electors at local or state conventions, while in others, they choose the existing party leadership. In Pennsylvania, the presidential candidates themselves choose their electors, while in California, the Democratic candidates for Congress choose them.

While a few voters like Abrams and Noem mentioned above may be well-known political figures, most are veteran worshipers of state parties, such as Bonnie Luria, a retired GM worker in West Branch, Michigan.

“I have held most of the positions, from the local level to the center of the state,” the 79-year-old said. “This is one I never had the privilege of being a part of. I’m glad it’s my turn.”

Another Michigan Democratic elector, Blake Mazurik, a 52-year-old history teacher, said he hopes the vote will send the message that the democratic system is still functioning despite Trump’s rhetoric.

“I hope there is a sense of reassurance on the part of many in America that our country has not been completely broken,” he said.

The president-elect – as you remember, the white-toothed old man who already won – will deliver a speech from Wilmington, Delaware, this evening after he and Kamala Harris have received their certificate of victory.

Today’s country-to-country votes, a traditional formality and post-thought, have gained great significance this year in light of Trump’s unprecedented attack on the country’s democratic process.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview broadcast on Sunday, the president insisted it was “not over” and expressed concern about the nation’s leadership by an “illegitimate” successor.

“No, it’s not over yet. We keep moving forward and we will keep moving forward. We have a lot of domestic issues,” Trump told Brian Kilmidi. Fox and Friends, Falsely claiming that he won in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, stating that he had a case going on in Wisconsin.

The president told the analyst: “We will speed it up as much as we can, but you can only go very fast.” He attended a soccer match between the Army and the Navy at West Point in a. Saturday. “They give us a little time. But we caught them, you know, as fraudsters, dropping ballot papers, doing a lot of things, and nobody can even believe that.”

Trump insisted, “This was not a close election.” “Look at Georgia. We won Georgia. We won big Pennsylvania. We won Greater Wisconsin. We won big.”

He continued, “What happened to this country is that we were like a country from the Third World.”

He kept the matter on Twitter last night, still questioning the outcome (and being censored) before attacking the US Supreme Court for “jamming” rather than backing up the challenge presented on his behalf by the Texas attorney general and a group of swing states last week.

Griffin Connolly shares this report with us.

The 538 U.S. Electoral College members will meet on Monday to cast their votes on behalf of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) to choose the next president, officially confirming that Joe Biden is the president-elect.

Barring sudden defections, Biden is expected to garner 306 votes to 232 for Donald Trump according to last month’s election results, bringing the country closer to ending the post-election nightmare period in which Trump has vehemently opposed his crushing defeat through a series of petty platitudes. The lawsuits, which have so far comprehensively failed to prove his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud.

Today’s results will be sent to Washington and codified in a joint session of Congress on January 6 chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, paving the way for Biden’s inauguration two weeks later.

In 32 states and metropolitan areas, laws require voters to vote for the winner of the popular vote. The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld this arrangement in July. Voters almost always vote for a winner in the state anyway because they are generally loyal to their political party. While there are sometimes a handful of “rogue” voters who vote for someone other than the popular vote winner for their state, the vast majority only validates their state’s results.

Officials expect nothing different on Monday.

In the Capitol such as Lansing, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; And Atlanta, Georgia, voters – usually loyal to the party – will meet to officially cast these votes. This process is certainly low-tech – by paper ballot. Voters cast one vote each for the President and Vice President.

Notable voter readers may recognize from Monday’s facts about Democrat Stacey Abrams of Georgia and Republican Gov. of South Dakota, Christy Noem.

The Electoral College was the product of a compromise during the drafting of the United States Constitution between those who preferred to elect the president by popular vote and those who opposed giving the people the power to choose their leader.

Each state gets as many electors as the total number of their seats in Congress: two senators plus the number of state members in the House of Representatives. Washington, DC, has three votes, under a constitutional amendment ratified in 1961. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, states award all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote in their state.

The deal struck by the founding fathers resulted in five elections in which the president did not win the popular vote. Trump was the most recent example in 2016, but Biden led him with more than 7 million votes in November.