December 14th – The dust of the 2020 U.S. presidential election is about to be settled. On December 14th local time, a total of 538 electors in the electoral college will vote for the United States and vice president according to the results of the state elections.
What is Electoral College Voting? What is the significance of voting in the electoral college? How will the voting be conducted? What will be the impact of the voting results on the general election?
American media such as NBC and the New York Times interpreted the unique electoral college system in the United States.
What is Electoral College Voting?
The voting of the United States Electoral College is held every four years. Members of the Electoral College vote for the presidential election and formally appoint the next President and Vice President of the United States.
Normally, this is just a “rubbling” procedure for the November election results, but the 2020 Electoral College vote has been scrutinized by many parties because Trump questioned the election results, so it is of extraordinary significance.
The electoral college is composed of 538 members elected by the states before the November general election. They are usually state governors, officials or politicians. Candidates need at least 270 electoral votes to win the U.S. election.
States follow the “winner-take-all” principle, which side gets the high vote, and the state’s electoral votes are one person (except Maine and Nebraska). Generally speaking, state electors will vote for candidates elected by state voters.
According to the previous election results in 50 states and Washington, D.C., the international community generally believes that Biden has become the 46th president of the United States.
Under federal law, state voters will vote on the “first Monday after the second Wednesday in December”, and this year it will be December 14, 2020 local time.
The vast majority of voters will vote in the state Capitol, and some state polls will be held in the governor’s office. Nevada is the only state to hold online meetings this year.
The states that will conduct the first ballots for the electoral college on December 14 include Indiana, Tennessee and Vermont, which will start voting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
California, which is crucial for Biden to win 270 electoral college votes, will call a vote at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
What role does the Senate play?
Counts of votes will be conducted after the electors vote in each state of the United States, and the electors will jointly sign certificates proving the results, which are matched with certificates provided by the Governor’s Office to publicize the total number of votes in the state.
These certificates will then be sent to the U.S. Vice President Pence, the President of the Senate, the Office of the Federal Register, the Secretary of State, and the Chief Justice of the Federal District Court where the electors meet.
After the Electoral College vote is over, the vote count will be held in a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives on January 6, 2021 at 1 p.m.
Pence will open the certificates in alphabetical order of state names and give them to four players (two from the House of Representatives and two from the Senate) for them to count the votes, and finally Peng Si will announce the winner of the U.S. election.
After officially announcing the winner of the U.S. election, the only important task left is the inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2021. Biden and Harris will be sworn in on the 20th and officially become Presidents of the United States and Vice President.
Can state voters change their minds?
Yes, but this rarely happens. Generally speaking, state voters in the United States vote their votes for candidates elected by the state’s voters, but since 1948, there have been 16 “distrustworthy voters” in the United States, that is, the voter’s voting choice and the state’s voting results are different. In 2016 alone, there were seven “distrustworthy voters” in the United States, but there has been no history of changing the election results due to “distrustworthy voters”.
Thirty-two states in the United States and the District of Washington, D.C., have enacted laws requiring voters to vote for the candidates they sworn in, and 15 of them will also punish “distrustworthy voters”. In addition, 17 states do not restrict voters to vote, which means that they can vote for the people they choose.
Previously, nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that they refused to give “bless voters” the right to choose presidential candidates at will, requiring them to elect candidates based on the results of voters in the presidential election.
Can members of Congress reverse the election results?
Programmatically OK, but in fact it can’t. Members of the U.S. Congress who wish to contest the results of the state election must submit it in writing and be signed by at least one senator and one representative.
After that, the two houses will debate the objection separately. Each member of Congress can only make a five-minute speech, and the debate will end in two hours. After that, the two houses will vote on whether to veto the state’s election results.
Since the passage of the Election Vote Statistics Act in 1887, the United States Congress has only raised two objections in 1969 and 2005, and failed to pass the House of Representatives or the Senate twice. Rep.
Mo Brooks, a Republican of the United States, said that he would challenge the vote in the electoral college on the 14th, but there are no other senators to join.
With the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, the Republican Party has only a slight advantage in the Senate, and the probability of reversal is zero.
Despite Trump’s insistence on electoral fraud and announcing his victory on Twitter, on November 26 local time, Trump said that he would leave the White House if the electoral college voted for Biden as President of the United States.
He said, “Of course I will”, but Trump added that if the Electoral College does vote for it. Holding Biden, “They made a mistake.”
