2017 United States Electoral College vote count

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2017 United States Electoral College vote count

← 2013 January 6, 2017 2021 →

538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
  Donald Trump official portrait (cropped).jpg Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine
Electoral vote 304[a] 227[a]
States carried 30 + ME-02 20 + DC

2017 US Electoral College objections map.svg
Objections made to the electoral college votes of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
  No objections
  Objection(s) attempted[b]

President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Donald Trump
Republican

The count of the Electoral College ballots during a joint session of the 115th United States Congress, pursuant to the Electoral Count Act, on January 6, 2017, was the final step to confirm then-President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election over Hillary Clinton.

This event was notable due to the many faithless electors in the electoral college votes, and the many unsuccessful objections raised by Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives.

Background[edit]

The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president. Each state appoints electors according to its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation (senators and representatives). Federal office holders cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president.

Each state and the District of Columbia produces two documents to be forwarded to Congress, a certificate of ascertainment and a certificate of vote. A certificate of ascertainment is an official document that identifies the state's appointed College electors and the tally of the final popular vote count for each candidate in that state in a presidential election; the certificate of ascertainment is submitted after an election by the governor of each state to the archivist of the United States and others, in accordance with 3 U.S.C. §§ 6–14 and the Electoral Count Act. Within the United States' electoral system, the certificates "[represent] a crucial link between the popular vote and votes cast by electors". The certificates must bear the state seal and the governor's signature. Staff from the Office of the Federal Register ensure that each certificate contains all legally required information. When each state's appointed electors meet to vote (on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December), they sign and record their vote on a certificate of vote, which are then paired with the certificate of ascertainment, which together are sent to be opened and counted by congress.

The 12th Amendment mandates Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election. The Electoral Count Act, a federal law passed in 1887, further established specific procedures for the counting of the electoral votes by the joint Congress. The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. Since the 20th Amendment, the newly elected joint Congress declares the winner of the election; all elections before 1936 were determined by the outgoing Congress.

A state's certificate of vote can be rejected only if both Houses of Congress, debating separately, vote to accept an objection by a majority in each House. If the objection is approved by both Houses, the state's votes are not included in the count. Individual votes can also be objected to, and are also not counted. If there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer simply includes a state's votes, as declared in the certificate of vote, in the official tally. After the certificates from all states are read and the respective votes are counted, the presiding officer simply announces the final state of the vote. This announcement concludes the joint session and formalizes the recognition of the president-elect and of the vice president-elect. The senators then depart from the House chamber. The final tally is printed in the Senate and House journals.

Joint Session of Congress[edit]

A total of 10 state certificates were objected to by Democratic members of congress, all of which were to states won by Donald Trump. Objections to the votes needed to be in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate. Every House member who rose to object did so without a senator's signature. Many of the objections were raised due to disputed claims of voter suppression and foreign interference. Then-Vice President Joe Biden presided over the count. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Roy Blunt were the tellers from the Senate, and Congressmen Gregg Harper and Bob Brady were the tellers from the House.

At 1:09 PM, Congressman Jim McGovern raised the first objection, objecting the certification of Alabama's electors. Biden dismissed the objection because it lacked the signature of a senator. Shortly after, members Jamie Raskin and Pramila Jayapal objected to electors from Florida and Georgia, respectively. After Barbara Lee objected to Michigan's electors, her microphone was turned off. Lee later objected to West Virginia's electors. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee made a total of four objections, objecting the certification of Mississippi's, North Carolina's (in which Raul Grijalva also objected), South Carolina's, and Wisconsin's electors. Each time an objection was raised, Biden noted that the objections could not be entertained due to the lack of a signature from a senator. During Wyoming's certification, which was the final state to be certified, Maxine Waters pleaded to the chamber, asking for a senator to sign her objection. No senator came forward, and the procedure finished at 1:41 PM, with a total of 304 certified electoral college votes for Donald Trump and 227 certified electoral college votes for Hillary Clinton.[1][2]

State Electoral votes Winner Faithless electors Objection raised by
Alabama 9 Trump/Pence None Jim McGovern (D-MA-2)[2]
Alaska 3 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Arizona 11 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Arkansas 6 Trump/Pence None No Objections
California 55 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Colorado 9 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Connecticut 7 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Delaware 3 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
District of Columbia 3 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Florida 29 Trump/Pence None Jamie Raskin (D-MD-8)[2]
Georgia 16 Trump/Pence None Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-7)[2]
Hawaii 4 3 for Clinton/Kaine 1 for Bernie Sanders No Objections
Idaho 4 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Illinois 20 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Indiana 11 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Iowa 6 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Kansas 6 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Kentucky 8 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Louisiana 8 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Maine 4 3 for Clinton/Kaine
1 for Trump/Pence
None No Objections
Maryland 10 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Massachusetts 11 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Michigan 16 Trump/Pence None Barbara Lee (D-CA-13)[2]
Minnesota 10 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Mississippi 6 Trump/Pence None Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18)[2]
Missouri 10 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Montana 3 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Nebraska 5 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Nevada 6 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
New Hampshire 4 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
New Jersey 14 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
New Mexico 5 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
New York 29 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
North Carolina 15 Trump/Pence None Raul Grijalva (D-AZ-3)[2]
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18)[2]
North Dakota 3 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Ohio 18 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Oklahoma 7 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Oregon 7 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Pennsylvania 20 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Rhode Island 4 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
South Carolina 9 Trump/Pence None Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18)[2]
South Dakota 3 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Tennessee 11 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Texas 38 36 for Trump/Pence 1 for John Kasich
1 for Ron Paul
No Objections
Utah 6 Trump/Pence None No Objections
Vermont 3 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Virginia 13 Clinton/Kaine None No Objections
Washington 12 8 for Clinton/Kaine 3 for Colin Powell
1 for Faith Spotted Eagle
No Objections
West Virginia 5 Trump/Pence None Barbara Lee (D-CA-13)[2]
Wisconsin 10 Trump/Pence None Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18)[2]
Wyoming 3 Trump/Pence None Maxine Waters (D-CA-43)[2]

*Maine awards electors by congressional district. Clinton won Maine at-large and Maine's first congressional district, while Trump won the second district.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b In state-by-state tallies, Trump earned 306 pledged electors, Clinton 232. They lost respectively two and five votes to faithless electors. Vice presidential candidates Pence and Kaine lost one and five votes, respectively. Three other votes by electors were invalidated and recast.
  2. ^ Pursuant to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, an objection requires the assent of a Representative and a Senator in order to be sustained before Congress. In all these cases, the attempted objections failed to receive assent from a Senator.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Williams, Brenna (January 6, 2017). "11 times VP Biden was interrupted during Trump's electoral vote certification | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Congressional Record House Articles". www.congress.gov. Retrieved November 16, 2021.