Electoral College vote affirms Biden's win

Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is an elector and just oversaw the roll call of electors in Atlanta.

Georgia's electors cast their 16 votes for President-elect Joe Biden during their meeting on Monday.

Biden is the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the Peach State in 28 years, since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Biden won Georgia by about a quarter of a percentage point over Trump, one of the narrowest margins this cycle. Republican election officials oversaw a statewide hand audit and a full machine recount, which affirmed Biden’s slim victory by only 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast.

Trump unsuccessfully tried to pressure Georgia’s GOP governor and secretary of state to overturn the popular vote and instead award him the state's 16 electoral votes.

WATCH:

Georgia’s electors cast their 16 votes for President-elect Joe Biden during their meeting on Monday in Atlanta.

Biden is the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the Peach State in 28 years, since Bill Clinton in 1992. 

Biden won Georgia by about a quarter of a percentage point over President Trump, one of the narrowest margins this cycle. Republican election officials oversaw a statewide hand audit and a full machine recount, which affirmed Biden’s slim victory by only 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. Trump unsuccessfully tried to pressure Georgia’s GOP governor and secretary of state to overturn the popular vote and instead award him the state's 16 electoral votes.

About the process: The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results. Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is Dec. 14.

Watch the vote:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among the electors who are casting Electoral College votes in New York State today.

New York has 29 electoral votes. The vote is happening inside the Assembly Chamber at the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York.

Delaware’s electors cast their three votes for President-elect Joe Biden during their meeting on Monday in Dover.

Biden won his home state by 19 percentage points, about 59% to 40%. With Biden’s victory, the First State has now voted Democratic in eight consecutive presidential elections.

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Electors across the country continue to formally cast their votes for president.

Today, 538 electors from every state and Washington, DC, are partaking in a critical part of the US electoral process, during which they will vote to affirm the votes cast during the 2020 election.

Electors vote at noon ET in:

CNN's John King breaks it down:

Nevada’s electors just cast their six votes for President-elect Joe Biden during a virtual meeting on Monday. 

Biden won Nevada by about two percentage points – 50% to about 48%. He beat Trump by about 33,000 votes. 

Trump and other Republicans filed lawsuits to overturn the results, falsely claiming there was widespread fraud in Nevada, where all residents were mailed absentee ballots.

The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously rejected Trump’s long-shot lawsuit, and Nevada's GOP secretary of state has not endorsed Trump's conspiracy theories about the election being “rigged.”  

Nevada has voted for the winning candidate in ten of the last 11 presidential elections, with 2016 the only exception.  

Remember: The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results.

Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is today. It takes 270 electoral votes of the 538 available to become president. 

See the moment:

Iowa’s electors cast their six votes for President Trump and Vice President Pence during their meeting on Monday in Des Moines. 

Trump defeated Biden by about eight percentage points, 53% to about 45%. 

The Hawkeye State has voted for the winning presidential nominee in six of the last eight elections. Biden made a late visit to campaign in Des Moines, but Trump won by a comfortable margin, nearly repeating his solid 2016 performance. 

Remember: The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results. Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is today.

Watch here:

For now, the Electoral College is the way this country elects presidents.

There are some efforts (mainly the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact) to try and move to a national popular vote, but those have so far been unsuccessful.

So what might get us to move away from the Electoral College? A major third party candidate with a base of support in the House of Representatives could do it. 

Right now, Republicans feel they have an advantage in the Electoral College relative to the popular vote. (See the 2000 and 2016 elections.) Most Republicans are against any efforts to move toward the popular vote.

A lot of Republicans were for it, however, after the 1968 election.

In that campaign, independent George Wallace won some states and could have prevented either candidate from getting 270 electoral votes. That would have thrown the election into the House. Wallace ultimately didn’t get enough votes, but he came close. He would have had some real bargaining power given you need a majority of state delegations to win in the House.

While the effort to move to a popular vote following that election failed in the Senate, it actually got the necessary supermajority in the House of Representatives to become a constitutional amendment.

South Carolina’s electors cast their nine votes for President Trump and Mike Pence during their meeting on Monday in Columbia. The electors voted for Pence first and Trump second.

Trump won the state with 55% of the vote, which was about a 12-point win over President-elect Joe Biden’s 43% showing. 

The Palmetto State has supported every Republican presidential nominee for the past 40 years.

About today's meeting: The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results. Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is today.

Watch the vote: