United States President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris speak in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 7, 2020, after being declared the winners of the presidential election. Both wear masks to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
Credit: © Andrew Harnik, AFP/Getty Images

In the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2021, the United States certified its electoral count, making official Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. In November 2020, Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, defeated the Republican incumbents (office holders), President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Certifying the electoral count is an activity associated with the Electoral College, a group of representatives that formally elects the president and vice president. On Election Day, in November, voters choose among presidential and vice-presidential tickets (pairings of candidates) from various political parties. But, the votes do not directly determine which candidate will become president. Instead, they determine which party’s electors will represent each state in the Electoral College. The electors, in turn, cast electoral votes on behalf of the states they represent. Electoral votes determine the outcome of the election.

In December, following the election, the electors in each state assemble and cast their ballots. Either by custom or by law, the electors vote for the candidates designated by their party. After the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to the vice president of the United States, acting in his role as president of the Senate. In January, at a joint session of Congress, the vice president opens and tallies the votes. One Democrat and one Republican from each chamber count the votes. The candidate who gets a majority of the electoral votes is declared the winner of the election.

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, members of Congress convened at the United States Capitol to carry out this largely ceremonial tradition. However, the count was disrupted by protests that turned violent. Supporters of President Trump, who had gathered to challenge the legitimacy of the election, stormed the Capitol, pushing through barriers and climbing walls. Lawmakers were quickly ushered to safety. Shouting and waving flags, the unruly mob entered the official chambers of Congress, as well as the personal offices of senators and representatives. Some damaged or stole property. Others took pictures of themselves occupying one of the nation’s most sacred buildings. Several people were injured, and one woman was shot and killed by the police. Several hours after the raid began, police and security officials cleared the Capitol. Lawmakers returned to the chambers to vote, intent on certifying the election results.

Outgoing Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a Republican, was one of the first senators to speak when talks resumed. Just hours earlier, Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, had defeated Loeffler in a runoff election. (In November 2020, neither Loeffler nor Warnock received more than half the vote, requiring the state to hold a runoff election.) The Loeffler-Warnock runoff was not the only one held in Georgia on January 5. In another runoff, the Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff defeated Senator David Perdue, a Republican. These victories gave the Democrats slim control of the Senate, reshaping the balance of power.

November 13, 2012

Florida’s Secretary of State declared President Barack Obama the winner of the state’s 29 electoral votes on November 10. With nearly 100 percent of the vote counted, Obama took 50 percent of the total, compared with Mitt Romney’s 49.1 percent. The president now has 332 Electoral College votes to Republican Romney’s 206.

The Electoral College is a constitutionally mandated institution consisting of delegates appointed by the states. Delegates cast votes for president and vice president according to who wins the popular vote in their state. A minimum of 270 electoral votes were needed to win the 2012 presidential election. President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden took the Electoral College votes of 26 states and the District of Columbia, a total of 332 electoral votes, giving Obama the presidency. Romney and his running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, received 206 electoral votes.

The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress and the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. The electors are usually people who are dedicated members of a political party. A state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for a state’s two senators. Under the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated three electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College.

Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the presidential candidate with the greatest popular vote in that state. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation”; that is, the candidate who gets 60 percent of the popular vote is given 60 percent of the Electoral College vote.

Some people regard the Electoral College as a roadblock to real democracy, robbing the popular vote of its importance. Others contend it ensures fairness and keeps states’ power intact.

Although the election of a president who did not win the popular vote is unusual in U.S. history, it is not unique. In 2000, George W. Bush lost the popular vote by about 540,000 votes to former Vice President Al Gore. Bush, however, was declared the winner with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that resulted in Florida’s then-25 electoral votes being awarded to Bush.

Additional World Book articles:

• Election of 2000
• United States, President of the
• War for the White House: A Legacy of the U.S. Constitution (a special report)

November 7, 2012

Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the first African American elected to that office, secured a second term in the White House on November 6 after a costly, closely fought battle against challenger Mitt Romney. In winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College, President Obama, a Democrat, overcame charges by his Republican opponent that his policies were unlikely to restore economic prosperity after the severe economic crisis of 2008-2009. President Obama won a preliminary total of at least 59,600,000 popular votes and 303 electoral votes, 33 more than the 270 needed to capture the presidency. Florida remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning.

President Barack Obama was reelected president of the United States on November 6, 2012. (The White House)

Shortly taking office in January 2009, President Obama signed a bill allocating $787 billion for stimulus programs and tax cuts to revive the economy. President Obama also took steps to bail out troubled American automakers and to strengthen the financial industry. In addition, he promoted and signed legislation that boosted government support for pay equality for women. His signature achievement was the passage of a historic health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which included provisions extending health care coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans. In December 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, a law ending the ban on openly homosexual soldiers in the armed forces.

In 2009, President Obama filled a campaign pledge and withdrew all U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities. The Iraq War was declared officially over on December 15, 2011. He also set a timetable of 2014 for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan. In May 2011, President Obama announced that a team of Navy SEALs had shot and killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qa`ida, the group responsible for the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.

In November 2010, voters gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives. For the remainder of President Obama’s first term, passing legislation became exceedingly difficult. The president also came under significant criticism by a loose collection of conservative political activist groups called the Tea party movement.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Kenyan and his mother was American. He graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1983. In 1985, he worked in Chicago for a church group that helped poor neighborhoods in the city. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. While there, he became the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, an important monthly law journal (magazine). Obama then practiced law in Chicago. He worked especially on civil rights issues. He also taught law at the University of Chicago.

Beginning in 1997, Obama served in the Illinois Senate. In 2004, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. That election and his stirring keynote address to the Democratic National Convention earlier that year gave him significant national exposure. Obama declared his intention to run for president in February 2007. He won the Democratic nomination against a wide field of competitors, including Senator Joe Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Obama then chose Biden as his vice-presidential running mate and, after taking office as president, tapped Mrs. Clinton to be his secretary of state.

Additional World Book articles:

• Economic Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
• Economic Crises, Then and Now (a special report)
• Economic Crisis: The Government Jumps In (a special report)
• Economics, United States (2011) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2010) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2009) (a Back in Time article)
• Economics, United States (2008) (a Back in Time article)