Tracking the 2020 electoral college vote
Electors cast a majority of the 538 votes for President-elect Joe Biden, finalizing his win.
President-elect Joe Biden took another step toward inauguration Monday when members of the electoral college gathered in state capitals to cast their ballots for president and vice president. The date is established by federal law, which states that the electors “shall meet and give their votes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December” in presidential election years, which this year falls on Dec. 14.
Normally an afterthought, the vote was closely watched this year as President Trump has sought to subvert Biden’s victory by promoting baseless claims that the vote was tainted by fraud and pressuring state lawmakers to back alternate slates of electors. No states did so.
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As expected following the Nov. 3 general election, Biden garnered 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 by the end of the day. Electoral votes are cast by individual electors, who are typically leaders and loyalists of the political party that won the state’s popular vote. Their ballots will be formally counted during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
Six of the states in which Trump contested his defeat — Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — cast their electoral votes for Biden and California’s 55 electoral votes put the president-elect over the top.
A previous version of this graphic incorrectly stated the winner of New Mexico. Joe Biden won the state’s five electoral college votes.