In US state capitals on Tuesday, presidential electors will gather to cast their ballots electoral votesformalizing the president-elect The victory of Donald Trump on Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
It is largely a ceremonial vote, the next step after the presidential election. When Americans cast their ballots on Election Day, they are technically voting for a slate of electors pledged to support their choice for president and vice president.
How does the Electoral College work?
The rules that regulate the The Electoral College is described for the 12th amendment.
The presidential electors, according to the amendment, “must nominate on their ballots the person who voted for president, and on separate ballots the person who voted for vice president, and must make separate lists of all the persons voted as president and of all the people voted as vice president, and of the number of votes for each, which lists must be signed and certified”.
Political parties choose the list of voters before the general election.
After Election Day, all votes are counted and then certified by each state. According to the 2022 Electoral Count Reform Actthe deadline for certifying the results is set six days before the call for voters, traditionally the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December.
Also the 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act requires each state to determine a state official (the governor unless otherwise specified) will be responsible for filing the “certificate of attestation” that identifies the state electors and includes a security feature.
What were the results of the 2024 Electoral College?
Trump won 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226. See state-by-state results here and below
At the national level, Trump also won the popular votewinning 77.2 million votes to Harris’ 75 million.
How many electoral votes does each state have?
The The Electoral College is made up of 538 votersand a majority of 270 is needed to be president.
Each state’s electoral votes are equal to the number of representatives they have in the House, plus two senators.
Although the number of Electoral College votes has remained at 538 since 1964, the number of votes per state changes to match the distribution of Congress after the decennial census. Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, Texas gained two Electoral College votes, while five other states (Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon) each gained one electoral vote. Six states lost one electoral vote: California, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
The map below shows the changes by state between the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Does every voter have to vote with state election results?
Forty-eight states and Washington, DC, are winner-take-all, so the winner of the popular vote in the state wins all of the state’s electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska assign their electors based on the winner of the popular vote within each congressional district, and then two “at-large” electors are determined based on the winner of the statewide popular vote.
Electors are supposed to vote according to the result of the popular vote in their state. The Constitution does not require electors to vote with the winner of the popular vote, but most states have laws that void the votes of “faithless electors.” The The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that states can punish these “faithless voters.”
according to FairVotethere have been 90 “deviant” votes cast by electors for the presidency since the founding of the Electoral College, although most of these were due to the death of a party’s candidate rather than a true deviation of the voters’ intention.
There have also been 75 unfaithful electors for vice president, for a total of 165 unfaithful electors throughout history, according to FairVote.
After the 2020 election, the so-called “fake” Republican voters in seven battleground states won by President Biden met anyway and cast fake votes for Trump. State criminal charges have been filed against voter fraud in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. In accusing Trump of trying to overturn the election resultsspecial counsel Jack Smith said these bogus voters were part of a plan to overturn the election, orchestrated by pro-Trump lawyers with Trump’s support. Those charges they have been fired since Trump won the 2024 election.
What happens after the Electoral College certification?
After the results are signed and certified, they are sent to Harris, who serves as president of the Senate. Voting certificates must be received by the fourth Wednesday in December, which this year is December 25. The archivist transmits the certificate sets to Congress before the new Congress meets on January 3, 2025.
On January 6, 2025, Congress meets in joint session to count the votes of the Electoral College, overseen by Harris. After the votes are counted, the vice president announces the winner of the election.
Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will take the oath of office at the inauguration at noon on January 20, 2025.