After what has seemed like an eternity for the last six weeks, the moment of truth is finally here: the electoral college will finally convene on December 14th and officially select the next President of the United States. Will the results hold for Joe Biden or will the electors shock the world and flip for Donald Trump?
Contrary to what is believed about the presidential election, voters aren’t actually voting for the candidate they prefer to become the chief executive of the federal government, they’re voting for the electors in the Electoral College they wish to represent them. In all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, there are 538 electors. Each state appoints electors at the direction of their respective legislatures under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
It may appear like it’s a fairly simple process, but it’s really not, especially in the lead up to the the Electoral College convening.
In the weeks between Election Day and the Electoral College convening, each state is obligated to certify and submit their results, making them official for the selection of Electoral College electors. December 8th marked the hard deadline, better known as the “safe harbor” deadline, for all states to certify their election results.
This is where many of the Trump campaign’s legal challenges were centered on: stopping the battleground states that Joe Biden won from certifying their votes due to widespread voter fraud. But the December 8th deadline is an important one as it means that the results can no longer be challenged in court. So, what happens then?
The states then choose their electors and formally require that they vote for the candidate that they pledged to vote for, who is basically the candidate who won their state.
But what about faithless or rogue electors? Could they break from Biden and vote for Trump?
Faithless electors have appeared here and there, but have never altered the outcome of the presidential election. In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump had two faithless electors both in the state of Texas: one vote went for Ron Paul and one went for John Kasich. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton had five faithless electors: 1 in Hawaii which went for Bernie Sanders and four in Washington State, three of which went for Colin Powell, and one went for Faith Spotted Eagle.
The truth of the matter is that the Electoral College is the final stand for Trump. After this, there’s really not a whole lot he can do. But, if you’re Trump, the silver lining in all of this is at least he has plenty of time to campaign for 2024, four whole years to be precise.
