When do electors cast their votes for president

There they will vote by paper ballot along the lines of the popular vote winner in their state and then each elector will cast two ballots, one for president and one for vice president. Those ballots are then tallied, after which the vote is certified in "certificates of the vote. Six "certificates of ascertainment" are paired with the certificates of the vote.

One is sent to the U. Those certificates must be delivered by the fourth Wednesday in December, which this year is Dec. They will ultimately be brought before Congress on Jan.

Electors are most typically chosen either by being nominated at a state party convention or being selected by a state party committee. Those included people pledged to support Clinton who decided not to back her in a futile bid to get Republican electors to abandon Trump and choose someone else as president.

Abdurrahman, the Minnesotan who wanted to vote for Sanders, was replaced as an elector. Once the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to Congress, where both houses will convene on Jan. The envelopes from each state and the District of Columbia will be opened and the votes tallied. If at least one member of each house objects in writing to some electoral votes, the House and Senate meet separately to debate the issue. Both houses must vote to sustain the objection for it to matter, and the Democratic-led House is unlikely to go along with any objections to votes for Biden.

Otherwise, the votes get counted as intended by the states. Sections U. Science Technology Business U. In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states. See the Electoral College timeline of events for the election. The rare elector who votes for someone else may be fined, disqualified and replaced by a substitute elector, or potentially even prosecuted.

It is possible to win the Electoral College but lose the popular vote. This happened in , in , and three times in the s. If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes , the vote goes to the House of Representatives. House members choose the new president from among the top three candidates. The Senate elects the vice president from the remaining top two candidates. This has only happened once.

The Electoral College process is in the U. It would take a constitutional amendment to change the process. For more information, contact your U. Lots of people dream of becoming President of the United States.

But to officially run for office, a person needs to meet three basic requirements established by the U. Constitution Article 2, Section 1.

People with similar ideas usually belong to the same political party. The two main parties in the U. Many people want to be President. In caucuses, party members meet, discuss, and vote for who they think would be the best party candidate. In primaries, party members vote in a state election for the candidate they want to represent them in the general election. After the primaries and caucuses, each major party, Democrat and Republican, holds a national convention to select a Presidential nominee.

The Presidential candidates campaign throughout the country to win the support of the general population. When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors.

Code requires that states resolve all election-related disputes six days before electors cast their votes. If a state succeeds in meeting the Safe Harbor Deadline, their results are considered conclusive and legally binding when sent to Congress for counting.

Code dictates that electors shall meet and vote on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December of presidential election years. This year, that date falls on December On this day electors meet in their respective states at a location, set by the state legislature usually the state capital , and vote by paper ballot for President and Vice President.