how many electors are there in the electoral college

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Eastman had urged Pence to consider electoral votes purportedly cast by pro-Trump activists in several states that Biden won, even when no state legislatures agreed to endorse a slate of alternate electors. Schmitz was previously a Bush administration Pentagon inspector general and a Blackwater executive. The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline Every four years, the election process for President and . The email was dated December 13, 2020, the day before electors met across the country to certify their states' election results. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [50], Despite assumptions about Eastman's role, the January 6 committee's final report, which was released on December 22, 2022, named lesser known Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro as the plot's original proponent. In her testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel confirmed Trumps own personal involvement with the fake-electors plan. Perfectly Fine a reelection disaster? Eastman himself, currently facing disbarment in California for his actions to subvert the election, has claimed that he was engaged in good-faith advocacy on an unsettled legal question. January 6, 2021Congress counts the vote Currently, all states select electors through a popular vote. This is the "popular vote. Polls show that Joe Biden is ahead by nearly nine percentage points nationally Credit: Getty Images - Getty How many Electoral College votes are needed to win? There are two exceptions to this rule: Maine and Nebraska. Five times in American history 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 the winner of the national popular vote lost the presidency to the winner of the Electoral College. Fox News host suggests Trump may have leaked audio in classified documents Student loan debt: Borrowers brace for Supreme Court decision, Americans are hiding their credit card debt. And just last week, the Georgia fake electors who have been targeted by a local prosecutor for potentially breaking the law cited their understanding that they were contingent electors and nothing more. Sinners wrote: "Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result a win in Georgia for President Trump but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion." Now enter Donald Trump. What are the qualifications to be an elector? December 14, 20205:01 AM ET Domenico Montanaro Enlarge this image Pennsylvania electors arrive in December 2016 to cast their votes for president. [32] All of the alternate elector certificates were prepared with similar language, formatting, and fonts, as reported,[34][40] thus indicating that the state actions were coordinated. The data are listed below. The Electoral College - National Conference of State Legislatures All voters and all who are eligible to vote may challenge the result of the municipal elections, the election of the mayor and his deputies, representatives of the town to a public institution for cooperation (EPCI) before the Administrative Court,[47] or by reference in a process-verbal, or by writing a complaint within 5 days from the date of the election.[48]. The operative constitutional language in the two clauses is essentially identical, said Michael Luttig, a former conservative federal appellate judge who advised Pence to reject those alternative slate of electors on Jan. 6. The Supreme Courts rejection of a controversial election theory may also have another huge political consequence for future presidential contests: It obliterated the dubious fake elector scheme that Donald Trump deployed in his failed attempt to seize a second term. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. [6], One email informed many of the president's top advisers that naming Trump fake electors in Michigan was not possible due to the state Capitol building being closed due to pandemic restrictions. Kelly said Stroia had received the certificates but denied any involvement of his office in their distribution. [40], Reimbursements are paid by the state to lists winning at least 5% of votes cast in one of two ballots in the towns of 2500 people or more. Wilenchik said in another Dec. 8 email that Ward wanted to keep it under wraps until Congress counts the vote Jan. 6th (so we can try to surprise the Dems and media with it) I tend to agree with her. (Ward was subpoenaed last month as part of the federal probe into the fake-elector plot.). The elections clause and electors clause contain very similar language. The Electoral College is made up of 538 delegates: people who cast the votes that formally elect the president. The first memo, dated November 18, laid out the general approach. [27][28] On the same day that the true electors voted, at the direction of Trump campaign officials, "alternate slates" of Republican electors convened in seven states where Biden had won by a relatively small margin (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) to sign false certificates of ascertainment. Lists that have obtained at least 10% of the vote remain for the second round; Candidates from a list that has obtained more than 5% do not stand in the second round. [a], Rosen and Donoghue also resisted pressure from Trump to announce the DOJ had found election fraud; attorney general Bill Barr had resigned days earlier after announcing that no election fraud of consequence had been found, telling Trump that allegations he and his associates espoused were "bullshit." Kelly was a Trump ally in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. This implies that these lists: These provisions in fact reduce the opportunity to present "whimsical" candidates who are not established locally or who do not have the resources of an organized party. Conservatives gather at the annual event to discuss their agenda. Wilenchik wrote of a strategy by Kelli Ward, the Arizona Republican Party chair, "to keep it under wraps until Congress counts the vote Jan. 6th (so we can try to 'surprise' the Dems and media with it) I tend to agree with her. So who are the members of the Electoral College? [7], In communes of over 1000 inhabitants, the election of councilors follows a list system in two rounds with proportional representation: candidates are presented in complete lists. Those recipients included Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn and one-time Trump attorneys Joe diGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing. Florida is always must-stop every four years for the presidential campaigns trying to win the 29 . Fake Trump Electors Strike Deal to Testify in DOJ's Jan. 6 Probe: Report For the first time, America could have a convicted felon as president. . "[52][53][54], On June 22, 2022, the Justice Department issued subpoenas to Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer and another party official who allegedly signed a document claiming to be Trump electors, and to a Virginia man who worked on the Trump campaign's efforts in Arizona and New Mexico. A simplified explanation of the Electoral College - Helping make the Follow him on Twitter@ProfDSchultz. The U.S. Constitution contains very few provisions relating to the qualifications of electors. Finally, fearing that the electors might not vote as the people decided, faithless electors laws were enacted to compel them to vote the way the popular vote went. Trump fake electors plot. Half of 538 is 269, so a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes to win. Prosecutors had asked grand jury witnesses hours of detailed questions about conversations between Trump, his attorneys and others about the scheme. Like Eastman, then-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark cited the McPherson decision in a now-infamous letter that he pressed Justice Department leaders to issue on the cusp of Jan. 6, 2021, urging them to call their legislatures into session and consider appointing a new slate of electors. She revealed that Trump was fully aware of the fake electors plan,[6] as he and Eastman had called her to enlist the committee's assistance to "gather these contingent electors, in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states. If multiple candidates receive the same number of votes, the election is won by the older of the candidates when no one can be elected based on the number of seats. The governor of any state where there was a contest, and in which the contest was decided according to . We would just be sending in fake electoral votes to Pence so that someone in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the fake votes should be counted, Wilenchik wrote to Epshteyn. The Electoral College is a method for indirectly electing the president of the United States. There have been more effortsto alter or abolish it than any other institution, andpollssuggest large percentages of the public support replacing it with a direct popular vote for president. The slave and free states each feared that the direct popular vote might work to their disadvantage. Law No.2000-493 from 6 June 2000 designed to promote equal access of women and men to electoral mandates and elective offices (translated), imposed man/woman parity rules in the municipal elections of municipalities with more than 3500 inhabitants. The idea was for the legislatures of each state to select electors who would be temporary, beholden to no one, with the sole duty of picking the president and vice-president. This isnt the first evidence that at least some involved expressed a desire for secrecy for the fake electors. The election may be limited to a single round in the case of an absolute majority, or give rise to a second round, in which case: Municipal elections in communes with more than 1000 inhabitants use the rule majority voting with proportional rate: the first half (rounded if necessary to the next whole number) are assigned seats to be filled from the list with the most votes; other seats are distributed among all the lists present in the final round that took more than 5% of votes cast (including the majority list) which is called proportional to the strongest average. The Electoral College is composed of 538 individual electors . By Dareh Gregorian It happens every four years and officially names the next president and vice president but thanks to President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, this. The total number of electors represent the total number of U.S. senators, 100. [61] The Smith special counsel investigation, established in November 2022, examined the fake electors scheme,[62] and in 2023 at least two fake electors testified before the grand jury in exchange for limited immunity.[63]. Rosen and Donoghue declined Trump's request to "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen," according to notes Donoghue took during a phone call with the president. The scheme was one of many elements in the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election and is being investigated by the Justice Department and the January 6 committee. [5], The Justice Department is investigating Trump's role in the events. DeMarco said the Trump campaign wanted no contingency, but the fake electors insisted upon it: The final language included the caveat: on the understanding that if, as a result of a final non-appealable Court Order or other proceeding prescribed by law, we are ultimately recognized as being the duly elected and qualified Electors.. Electoral College - HISTORY Then, their 20 votes went for President Trump.. About the Electors | National Archives Reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House, An intriguing new detail on Trumps fake electors, What the DeSantis fentanyl plan owes George W. Bush, Sorry, Republicans: Nikki Haley cant make you young again, DeSantiss latest appeal to MAGA tops Trump in performative cruelty, fake electors for President Donald Trump, a batch of new emails related to the fake-elector plot, an 11th-hour dispute between the electors and the Trump campaign. The Electoral College As established by Federal Law, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December after a Presidential General Election, each State's Electors will meet in their respective State capitals and cast their electoral votes - one for President and one for Vice President. Eastman has argued that even if his legal theory was wrong, its not a punishable offense to give incorrect or unpopular legal advice. These self-proclaimed electors have no legal standing, and the National Archives did not accept their documents, publishing the official (Biden) results from those states as the result of the election. But elsewhere he suggested at least one key figure involved had more secretive ideas: Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward. That push has landed Eastman at the center of both bar disciplinary actions as well as ongoing criminal probes in Washington and Georgia. Florida has 29 electoral votes. Total leverage. [Note 3]. David Schultz is a professor of political science at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. The Electoral College - National Geographic Society Trump fake electors plot - Wikipedia age 18 or more by January 1st of the election year; and a French citizen or national, or a member of the. Todays ruling makes clear, for example, that an elected state legislature cannot cut the people of the state out of the loop of picking presidential elections if the state constitution requires that electors to the electoral college be popularly selected, argued Vikram Amar, a law professor at the University of Illinois, on a call organized by the group Protect Democracy and others who opposed the independent state legislature theory. Additionally, a recent uprising by farmers, known asShays Rebellion, meant many at the convention feared that the people might not be capable or knowledgeable enough to vote. Map courtesy U.S. Census, modified by Adam Lenhardt Instead of voting for a specific candidate, voters in an indirect popular election select a panel of individuals pledged to vote for a specific candidate. During the vote, the voter can neither add to nor delete from the lists, or change the order of presentation of the lists.[8]. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. He wrote, "It's very simple. State legislatures thinking that they can just, if they feel like it after an election, replace the popular will with a slate of electors is as gone as there can't be any review of redistricting plans.. So, each state has at least three electors, because each state has two Senators and at least one member of the House of Representatives. [36], Many provisions of the electoral code establish reasons for ineligibility, to ensure both the freedom of conscience and independence of elected officials. While there was some talk of direct election of the president, there was little support for it. For smaller municipalities (multi-member majority vote), only the winners are cited, without specifying their original list or the rate of mixing. As Alexander wrote inFederalist No. The participation rates for municipal elections in France are quite high. he or she wins all of that state's electoral votes. This scheme came to be known as the Pence Card. Voters are able to spread their vote among candidates from multiple parties. Clark and Perry discussed a plan for Clark to draft a letter to Georgia officials stating the DOJ had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States," urging the Georgia legislature to convene a special session for the "purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors." This provision was contained in section 8B of the Maastricht Treaty. This certificate officially lists electors in Pennsylvania in 2012. [1] The Electoral College met on December 14, 2020, to cast their votes for president and vice president of the United States. The Electoral College has nothing to do with education, and its members (called electors) never actually meet together. The table provides a list of U.S. electoral votes by state. The second memo, dated December 9, outlined state-specific instructions on how to legally appoint alternate electors in Wisconsin, and provided the exact format for the false documents they should sign. The clearest link between Tuesday's decision and the Trump election gambit was in the references to a 140-year-old Supreme Court decision in McPherson v. Blacker a ruling cited repeatedly by Trump's allies as they sought to justify their efforts to supplant Biden's electors with their own. United States Electoral College - Wikipedia As the constitutional Framers debated how to structure the new government, fear was the word of the day. [22][23], For the city councils of Paris, Lyon and Marseilles, the number of municipal councilors should not be confused with the arrondissement or sector councilors of which there are many more but with limited powers, as determined by the Law on the administrative organization of Paris, Marseille, Lyon:[24]. Entre le 1 er janvier et le 31 dcembre 2010, 1,7 million de personnes se sont inscrites sur les listes lectorales communales, soit 4 % de l'ensemble du corps lectoral. Zach Montellaro, Kyle Cheney and Madison Fernandez, President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, American law professor; legal and constitutional scholar, US Supreme Court backs man who sent female musician flood of unwanted messages. The Trump campaign and allies have said the fake electors were merely a contingency if the election results were overturned pre-Jan. 6. The Electoral College was, as political scientistMartin Diamondonce argued, the check on populism that might go bad. [44], On December 22, Ivan Raiklin, an associate of Michael Flynn and a former special forces officer who presented himself as a constitutional attorney, tweeted to Trump a two-page memo entitled, "Operation Pence Card," describing how the vice president might reject electors from states Biden won and in which Trump alleged fraud. Electoral College | USAGov For others, the election is proportional representation with one round[52] But as soon as 1964, the law completely eliminated proportional representation:[53], The law of 19 July 1976 changed the boundaries of the sectors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon and created sectors for Toulouse and Nice[54], The law of 19 November 1982 established the current voting protocols:[55]. Representation in the House is determined by the U.S. Census, conducted every 10 years. They elect the mayor, who chairs the city council, as well as Deputies to the Mayor. POTUS must start second term now." The emails showed that progress reports on the scheme were routed to Giuliani, and in one case to Meadows. This effort was predicated on a fringe legal theory outlined by Trump attorney John Eastman in the Eastman memos, which claimed the vice president has constitutional discretion to swap out official electors with an alternate slate during the certification process, thus changing the outcome of the electoral college vote and the overall winner of the presidential race. On November 8, he wrote, "Sidney Powell is saying that she needs to get in to see the president, but she's being kept away from him. There are 538 electors in the electoral college, divided among each state as well as the District of Columbia. Have millennials moved right, or has Gen Z pushed Democrats off a leftward cliff? Epshteyn asserted the slates of alternate electors were not fraudulent and "it is not against the law, it is according to the law." [46] For cities with more than 3500 inhabitants from 2014 onward, municipalities with more than 1000 (party list) people, all lists are cited because they are deposited in the prefecture prior to voting. Other alleged false Trump electors in Michigan also received subpoenas, though it was not clear whether they were federal or state; Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel had also been investigating the fraudulent elector scheme. This was followed for all municipalities up to the municipal elections of 1947, when proportional representation was applied to municipalities with more than 9000 inhabitants. These are called conseillers municipaux (city councilors). [b], The FBI also served a search warrant on Nevada Republican party chair Michael McDonald, and sought to serve a warrant on party secretary James DeGraffenreid; both men had signed a fraudulent certificate of ascertainment. Perhaps Trump and Co. later misuse[d] the fake electors to try to overturn the election regardless, as Georgias fake electors suggested last week in court, but the fake electors themselves shouldnt be held responsible for that if they had no knowledge of that plan. In total, there are 538 electors in the Electoral College. [3] In a conference call hosted by an election security watchdog group on January 2nd, Trump, Eastman, and Giuliani spoke to some 300 Republican state legislators in an effort to persuade them to convene special legislative sessions to replace legitimate Biden electors with fake Trump electors based on unfounded allegations of vote fraud; dozens of those legislators asked Pence to delay the election certification for that purpose. Electoral Count Act bill introduced in Senate to prevent rejecting What are electors, again? The municipal election is open to all French voters and members of the European Union residing in the township or paying taxes to the commune,[33] that is to say, a person who: Voters elect candidates within the municipal district they are registered in (the town, or borough, in the case of Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles). [50], The law of 5 April 1884 is considered as the founding act of municipal democracy in France, establishing a uniform legal regime for all municipalities of France. In one email, he outright refers to the electors as fake electors, before later suggesting that a more palatable phrase would be alternate electors.

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