The election may have been held on November 8, but the votes that really register get sent to Washington today.
The usually overlooked, constitutionally obligated gathering of 538 electors in 50 states and the District of Columbia has earned special scrutiny and intense lobbying this year by Trump’s opponents, including last-minute weekend protests in cities such as Denver and Los Angeles after the split election.
In most elections, the Electoral College is about as exciting as watching a basketball powerhouse play a warm up game against a technical school, but with the disastrous results of the vote in November, there’s been a persistent, though tiny, glimmer of hope that electors might display more sense than the public. It’s not impossible, just very, very, very unlikely.
The ‘cleanest’ scenario would be for 37 Trump electors to move their votes from Trump to Clinton, but the idea of that number of Republican electors writing down Clinton’s name is also probably the least likely. Expecting that great number of electors will change their votes, involves forgetting just who these electors are.
“Any choice was better than Hillary, so it’s not a hard choice for me,” Potts said in a recent interview.
Other scenarios involving simply denying Trump enough votes to win and throwing the whole thing into the House are also possible … though that might not actually change the outcome.
The Republican electors chosen to mark these chits are deeply embedded in the party. The odds of more than one or two deciding to not scratch out a big ‘T’ today have always been vanishingly small.
Robert Asher, a Republican elector from Pennsylvania, said that Trump’s most ardent detractors will continue seeking ways to undermine him.
“If it’s not his business interests it’ll be whether he has his dog groomed on Fridays or Saturdays,” he said in a recent interview.
But still … but still … It’s possible. There is a chance. It could happen.
And unlike the regular election, those holding onto that firefly-flicker of hope won’t have it squashed by a jackboot today, because we’ll have to wait a few weeks to know the results.
Electors will cast two votes, for president and one for vice president. Once ballots are cast, state officials prepare a “certificate of vote” that is sent to Washington for processing by Congress and the National Archives.
Lawmakers will gather Jan. 6 in the House chamber to hear the results of the states in alphabetical order during a session set to be led by Vice President Biden. It will allow lawmakers to challenge the results or the votes of individual electors.
So everyone can hold onto that last hope through the holidays — including the hope that, when we get to this spot next year, everyone won’t be looking back on 2016 as a good year.