KVIG Informative

Americans vote for president on Election Day, but the office is formally decided by 538 electors in a process that runs from November to January 20. Here is what happens at each step, and what a 2022 reform law changed.

Article II of the Constitution and the Twelfth Amendment establish the Electoral College, according to the Congressional Research Service. Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress: two for its senators plus one for each House seat. The Twenty-Third Amendment gave the District of Columbia three, which brings the total to 538. A candidate needs a majority, 270, to win. Nevada has six electors, two for its senators and four for its House members. Members of Congress cannot serve as electors.

Voters technically choose slates of electors pledged to a candidate, and the electors’ names often appear on the ballot. States decide how their electors are awarded. In every state except Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote receives all of that state’s electors. Maine and Nebraska award some by congressional district.

From Election Day to December After the state finishes counting, its chief executive issues a Certificate of Ascertainment naming the winning electors. Under the 2022 reform law, that is the governor unless state law says otherwise, and the certificate is due no later than six days before the electors meet. The electors gather in their state capitals on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December and cast their votes. They then prepare Certificates of Vote, which go to the Senate, to the Office of the Federal Register at the National Archives, and to other officials.

January 6 and Inauguration Congress meets in joint session on January 6. The vice president, acting as president of the Senate, opens the certificates and reads them to the House and Senate. The new president takes the oath at noon on January 20.

What If No One Gets 270 If no presidential candidate wins 270 electoral votes, the Twelfth Amendment sends the decision to the House of Representatives, which chooses from the three candidates with the most electoral votes. The Senate chooses the vice president from the top two. The Congressional Research Service notes that a tie in the Electoral College would also trigger this process, called a contingent election.

What the 2022 Law Changed Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act in December 2022, and President Biden signed it on December 29 as part of a larger spending bill. It replaced the ambiguous provisions of an 1887 law that came under scrutiny after the 2020 election. The new law names the governor as the official who certifies a state’s electors unless state law specifies otherwise, and it bars Congress from accepting a slate from anyone else. It declares the vice president’s role in the count ministerial. It requires any objection to be in writing and signed by at least one-fifth of House members and one-fifth of senators. It also provides for expedited court review of disputes over a state’s electors.

Each step has a rule, a date, and an official responsible for it, which is the main reason the process is more predictable than it looks from the outside. The next pieces in this series cover how to vote in Nevada this month, the arguments over whether the system should change, and the history of the Voting Rights Act.