It may seem somewhat anti-climactic, given that the outcome of the presidential race was clear in the wee hours of November 6, but Tuesday was the day the Electoral College formally met and cast their votes for the president and vice president, pursuant to 3 U.S. Code § 7.
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The certified slates of electors for each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective states, beginning with Maryland and continuing through to Hawaii.
🚨 BREAKING: Trump officially receives enough Electoral College votes from the states to become the president. Electors are meeting today.
They will be certified on Jan. 6. pic.twitter.com/6C0bUGCZgd
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 17, 2024
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And while it was Pennsylvania that made Trump’s victory a certainty on Election Night (despite the fact that it took a while longer for some states to get their final tallies sorted — looking at you, California and Arizona), it was Texas that won the day for Trump on Tuesday.
President-elect Donald Trump has received enough electoral votes to officially clinch the presidency, a major milestone that he reached when Texas’ electors awarded him the state’s 40 electoral votes at their meeting Tuesday in Austin.
While Trump won the election on November 5, his victory was formalized Tuesday as presidential electors gathered across the country as part of the constitutional process to officially elect a President known as the Electoral College.
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Of note, unlike the election of 2016, there were no “faithless electors” in 2024.
Electoral College voting concluded Tuesday evening as Hawaii cast its four electoral votes for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The final national totals matched the results from November’s election: President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance each won 312 votes and Harris and Walz each won 226.
Next up?
[E]ach state’s votes will be sent to Congress. Lawmakers will meet in joint session on January 6 to formally tally the electoral votes and officially declare Trump and Vance the next president and vice president.
They will take office at noon on January 20, 2025.
34 days and counting…
