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Statistical

(19,264 posts)
1. Electors and Congress voting are two different things.
Wed Sep 30, 2020, 09:26 AM
Sep 2020

Nov 3rd - general election. Technically when you are voting for Biden you are actually voting for electors which will cast an electoral vote for Biden not Biden himself since the President is elected by the electoral college.

Dec. 14 - electoral college meets individually in each state. All states select electors by the election results. The electors then cast votes for their candidates. Most states seat electors on a winner take all basis but two state NE and ME split their electors based on districts.

Dec 20 - All 50 states plus DC each deliver their certified electoral votes to Congress. Example Virginia casts 13 electoral votes for Biden. Montana casts 3 electoral votes for Trump.

Jan. 6 - Joint session of Congress meets and determines the winner of the election. If any candidate has 270 electoral votes they win. That is it. There is nothing further that Congress does. IF NEITHER candidate has 270 EV then the House will vote 1 vote per state to pick the next President. The same happens in the Senate for VP.

So the short version is yes if neither candidate gets 270 EV Congress decides and due to state breakdown 27 states vs 23 states, Trump would be re-elected. However that only is the case if neither candidate gets 270 EV.

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