Obama has not been re-elected President of the United States

[Platapus]

Barack Obama has not been re-elected President of the United States of America, well at least not yet anyway.

Or, why do we have an election 2 ½ months before changing office?

The Citizens did their part by casting their votes, either early, via absentee voting, or by showing up at the polls on 6 November.

Sure all the news stations have proclaimed that Senator Obama won the election, but not to fast there. The 6 November is but one of the elections that selects the President.

The election for President is not until 6 January 2013. It is just that we won't be involved. Here is what will happen.

Between 7 November and shortly before 17 December, the various state election boards will be busy counting (and recounting) the votes cast on 6November, the mailed-in absentee ballots, the early voting ballots, and the provisional ballots (after being verified). The popular vote determines which party's electors will be selected to represent the state.

Then the electors (13 from Virginia), will travel down to the State Capitol to take part in another election on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December (17 December). They will cast their vote for President and Vice President in two separate votes.

The Electors record their votes on seven "Certificates of Vote," which are paired with the seven remaining original "Certificates of Ascertainment." The Electors sign, seal and certify the packages of electoral votes and immediately send six of them to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States and other designated Federal and State officials. These sealed votes include the names of the Electors and who they voted for (no secret ballot for Electors!)

The sealed votes must be delivered to the Senate no later than 26 December, 2012.

After everyone sobers up after New Years, both houses of the Congress will meet and watch the Vice President physically count 53 vote packages (50 states and DC) on 6 January, 2013. This is one of the reasons not to get rid of the Electoral College. Can you imagine how long it would take the Vice President to physically count 100,000,000 + votes?

Hey! 53 packages but only 50 states + DC? What gives?

48 states and DC have adopted a winner take all Electoral system. In those states (DC is considered a state for these purposes) what ever party gets the highest number of votes gets ALL of the electoral votes of that state). There are only two exceptions to this. Nebraska and Maine have adopted a proportional Electoral system. Nebraska and Maine, in 2013, will end up with 2 different Electoral votes which total the total number of Electoral votes for that state.

Both Nebraska and Maine use the same method for proportional elector voting. Two electors are selected on the basis of the statewide vote and two (for Maine, three for Nebraska) are selected according to outcome of the vote in each of Maine's two (Nebraska's three) Congressional districts.

So the Vice President will have to lick his vote counting finger 53 times this January before any one can be elected President of the United States.

Ok, so if the President is really really elected on 6 January, when why do we have to wait 14 days until inauguration?

Well it used to be a lot longer wait. Inauguration Day was originally set for March 4, giving electors from each state nearly four months after Election Day to cast their ballots for president. In 1933, the day of inauguration was changed by constitutional amendment (20th) from March 4 to Jan. 20 to speed the changeover of administrations.

Pretty complicated process just to elect someone to blame.

[Tchocky]

How was polling day from your side of the table?

[Platapus]

It was a long day. As usual I got sick and boy am I sore.

Up at 0300, got to bed at 2300. But it was a good election.

My precinct had a 70.6% turn out and that is not counting the absentee/early voting. A fantastic turn out.

I had a great team and they kept the line moving. For the first four hours, the line was out of the building and to the parking lot. But my team was able to keep the waiting down to 15-20 minutes.

This was the first election with the new Virginia Voter ID law and I was expecting some protests. Not at all. All the voters were decent and polite.

Very tiring day but afterwards so very worth it. In my tiny way, in my tiny precinct, we helped democracy work.

I had a great team.

[AVGWarhawk]

It takes about one month to move one family out of the White House and another month to move the next one in. No joke. This time there will be no moving of anyone. BO should get back to work immediately.

[mookiemookie]

Ridiculous and unnecessary amount of complexity and red tape if you ask me.

[Gargamel]

Good thing all the states have their pony's ready to deliver those votes. You know, it takes time for messengers on foot to reach DC.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Ridiculous and unnecessary amount of complexity and red tape if you ask me.

It may seem unnecessary now, but in the early days, the simple act of polling people took a lot longer time.

Almost interesting trivia.

There have been over 700 proposed amendments to the constitution to either significantly change or abolish the Electoral College. More proposed amendments on this topic than any other topic.

http://www.archives.gov/federal-regi...llege/faq.html

Personally, I think the solution is to fix the electoral college, not abolish it. One way I would like to fix it is to make all the states use proportional elector selection methodologies in order to more closely represent the votes of the citizens.

But both major political parties like the Electoral College just the way it is, so don't expect help from Congress.

There is a second way to propose an amendment, but it has never been used.

2/3rds of the legislators of the states (34 States) can form a convention to propose an amendment. Then if 3/4ths of the states (38 states) ratify it, then it becomes an amendment to the constitution.

What are the chances of 34 states getting together and forming a convention about this?

BTW, Although it is trendy to blame the president for *everything* that happens in the US, the president has no say in proposing or approving amendments to the constitution. There is no presidential veto for constitutional amendments.

Hollingsworth v Virginia (3 US 378 [1798]):

The negative of the President applies only to the ordinary cases of legislation: He has nothing to do with the proposition, or adoption, of amendments to the Constitution.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Platapus

It was a long day. As usual I got sick and boy am I sore.

Up at 0300, got to bed at 2300. But it was a good election.

My precinct had a 70.6% turn out and that is not counting the absentee/early voting. A fantastic turn out.

I had a great team and they kept the line moving. For the first four hours, the line was out of the building and to the parking lot. But my team was able to keep the waiting down to 15-20 minutes.

This was the first election with the new Virginia Voter ID law and I was expecting some protests. Not at all. All the voters were decent and polite.

Very tiring day but afterwards so very worth it. In my tiny way, in my tiny precinct, we helped democracy work.

I had a great team.

Nice one.

[yubba]

Like someone in here has already said, the people have spoken,,live with it..
yes the people have spoken. I know you guys hate me because I'm pretty.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by yubba

Like someone in here has already said, the people have spoken,,live with it..
yes the people have spoken.

You realize that the TracFone program was started under George W. Bush? And the Lifeline program to provide discounts on phone service to the poor was instituted under Reagan?

http://web.archive.org/web/200808160...34/detail.html

Originally Posted by Platapus

The sealed votes must be delivered to the Senate no later than 26 December, 2008.

Oh Crap!! It's too late now Baby!!

[Herr-Berbunch]

They have to be delivered by 26 Dec 2008? What was the point of going to the polls this week if it was arranged four years ago?

[Karle94]

So America is tecnically without a leader until january?

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Karle94

So America is tecnically without a leader until january?

No. The current president's term lasts up to the minute that the new president takes office on Inauguration Day. So if Romney had won, Obama would have still been president until January 20th.

[yubba]

Oh, do I detect alittle buyers remorse, the dow has lost over 300 points in 2 days after the election, companies announcing layoffs that shows a lot of confidence, and now the media wants to start doing their job, reporting about the fiscal cliff, the 47 pecent got their man, well the 53 percent of us got congress and a mandate, we want jobs, we want fiscal sanity, and we want energy independence, all promised by our newly re- elected president or was that a lie too ????????????