Electoral College 5: What Happens Next?

Shortly after 11 pm EST, Tuesday night, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson, et al., announced that Barack Obama had been elected president. But, of course, that is not the official announcement. The official announcement will be made by none other than Dick Cheney.

Unlike 2000, with this year's presidential election, all activity of the electoral college between now and the date the vice president announces the result to a joint session of Congress (January 6, 2009) will be merely a formality. This time, any recount in the state with the tightest contest, North Carolina, cannot affect the result. Obama has won well over 50% of the electors in states where the result is undisputed.

Here is a press release from the National Archives, detailing the process whereby the electoral college formally elects the president.

You thought election day was November 4? Actually, it's December 15. That's the date on which the electoral college meets, state by state, as I described here.

Then, they send their vote totals to Congress, which opens them up and tabulates them in a joint session, shortly after they reconvene at the beginning of January.

The president of the Senate, i.e., the vice president of the United States, announces the result to the lawmakers. In 1989, George H.W. Bush announced that the new president was ... George H.W. Bush. But it has more often gone in the other direction. In 2001, for example, Al Gore made his own defeat official.

I'm guessing that, with this election, at least some Obama supporters will consider it to be delicious irony that their archenemy Cheney will formally announce Obama's election.