Electoral College/file/AP
by David Jackson, USA TODAY
President Obama will be re-elected on Monday -- officially.
The Electoral College meets Monday to formally cast the state-by-state votes that Obama won in the Nov. 6 election.
Obama won states that total 332 electoral votes; Republican Mitt Romney won states with 206 electoral votes.
Even
after the college vote, the next Congress must formally record the
electoral votes on Jan. 6 and formally declare Obama the winner.
It's
all a foregone conclusion, given the scope of Obama's victory -- though
it's always possible one or two electors will go their own way.
From The Washington Post:
"The
Constitution provides little in the way of mandating how the electoral
college should work. It simply determines that each state has one
elector for each of its senators and representatives, meaning no state
has fewer than three votes.
"Federal law requires state electors
to meet in their respective state capitals every four years to cast
their votes for president and vice president on the Monday after the
second Wednesday of December. Otherwise, states largely set their own
rules. In most states, an equal number of electors pledge themselves to
each candidate, and the popular vote dictates which team of electors
casts its votes.
"But not all states require their electors to
vote according to their initial pledges. And sometimes, electoral voters
go their own way.
"President Gerald Ford won Washington state in
1976, but Republican elector Mike Padden spent his vote on Ronald
Reagan, who wasn't even the GOP nominee that year. ...
"Nine
electors are known to have defected from their pledges since 1948. Some
states have passed laws subjecting such 'faithless electors' to fines."
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