LANSING, Mich. – Michigan electors gathered on Monday to fulfill their constitutional duty to elect the winner of the popular vote for the office of U.S. president and vice president.
On Monday afternoon, Michigan electors unanimously cast 16 Electoral College votes for Joe Biden for president. They also unanimously cast 16 votes for Kamala Harris for vice president. Biden won the state by more than 150,000 votes.
Recommended Videos
The meeting was a formality, as Michigan electors are required by law to vote for the winner of the popular vote. Michigan has 16 electors to reflect the number of senators and representatives it has in the U.S. Congress. Presidential candidates on the Michigan ballot submit a list of 16 qualified electors to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Other states are casting final electoral votes today, too.
What happens next?
Once the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to Congress, where both houses will convene on Jan. 6 for a session presided over by Vice President Mike Pence. The envelopes from each state and the District of Columbia will be opened and the votes tallied.
If at least one member of each house objects in writing to some electoral votes, the House and Senate meet separately to debate the issue. Both houses must vote to sustain the objection for it to matter, and the Democratic-led House is unlikely to go along with any objections to votes for Biden. Otherwise, the votes get counted as intended by the states.
And then there’s one more step: inauguration.