Dear Friend and Reader,
CONSIDERINGВ THEВ PUREВ case of the willies everyone gets after the historic and controversial Mercury-retrograde fraught election of 2000,В this is a reminder that the US Electoral College meets again today, as it does every four years,В toВ officially cast their votesВ for the President of the United States.
When we voted on Nov. 4, 2008, like in all other states, we voted for a slate of electors for our stateВ to serve in the electoral college. In the case of California, those 55 electors met today toВ cast their ballot for the office of President and Vice-President. In all but two cases, the number of electoral votes awarded is winner-takes-all. Maine and Nebraska are the only states where these votes are apportioned by actual vote.
TheВ Electoral College is a process, not a place. It is administered by the The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which is the Office of the Archivist of the United States. Think of the NARA as the Price-Waterhouse accounting firm for the Presidential Academy Awards,В reviewed andВ processed anewВ every four years. They are theВ accounting firm for democracy.
NARA’s role is toВ ensure the completenessВ of the states’ Certificates of Ascertainment utilized to identify and document the electors for the President and Vice President of the US. These certificates have the following information:
- names of the electors chosen by the voters and the number of votes received
- names of all other candidates for elector and the number of votes receivedВ В
NARA also assures the completeness of the Certificates of Vote and controls the integrity of these Certificates by limiting the number of people handling the documents. The Certificates of Vote must listВ all persons who received electoral votes for President and Vice President, and the number of electors who voted for each person running for those offices.
The Certificates of Ascertainment identify the electors and the Certificates of Vote identify who these electors voted for.
NARA is responsible for transmitting two of the original Certificates of Ascertainment to the House and Senate and making one original available for public inspection at the Federal Register.В NARA ensures that all 538 electoral votes are accounted for on the Certificates of Vote and are delivered to the Congress to be unsealed and counted on the date of the official tally. For the election of 2008, the Congress will receive these votes when it convenes a newВ CongressВ Jan. 8, 2009.
After one year the Certificates of Ascertainment and the Certificates of Vote are placed in the permanent custody of NARA.
Dec. 15, 2008 according to NARA,В is also the last dayВ Certificates of Ascertainment can be sent in to their offices. By Dec. 24, 2008, the President of the Senate and the Archivist of the United States should have the electoral votes in hand. If these certificates are lost the archivist may take “extraordinary measures” to retrieve copies of the originals.
Am I makingВ anyone nervous?
By Jan. 3, 2009, the Archivist transmits copies of the Certificate of Ascertainment to Congress. This year, Congress willВ meet in joint sessionВ to count the electoral votes on Jan. 8, 2009, which is two days after the newly-elected Congress is sworn in. The President of the Senate is the presiding officer.В Please note the name of the President of the Senate is Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
Anyone else nervous yet?
If and when the election results of Nov. 4, 2008 are counted, ratified and accepted on Jan. 8, on Jan. 20, 2009 at Noon, first the new Vice President, followed by the new President, willВ take the Oath of Office.
AВ visit to your friendly federal government websiteВ will provide you the necessary information toВ research our voting processВ in-depth if you or your kids want to learn about how we vote. I’dВ suggest that given the exiting players involvedВ that we not blink for one second during this process.
To our benefit, there will be a new majority in Congress meeting early JanuaryВ that will hopefully do the right thing and ratify the President the majority of the country voted for.В You may have in the back of your mind that this country has had its election usurped before, by theВ same team exiting soon. We hope this painless little civics lesson,В also known as theВ Electoral College primer will be helpful. If for nothing else, to brief you on what to discuss if you need to call your Congressperson to raise holy hell if something weird does go down. An ounce of prevention.
Another community service, provided by your friendly folks here at Planet Waves!
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan from San Francisco