What next for Joe Biden on his path to the White House?

All over America, in state capitals such as Boston, Tallahassee and Atlanta, and in Washington DC, representatives of that curious political species the electoral college have met to formally elect Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.

Arguably, this is the second time that Mr Biden has been elected president. He won the popular vote in the November election, but in America’s federal system he must be elected by state representatives, the members of the electoral college. Each state is allocated a number representing the number of representatives in Congress (broadly proportional to population), plus another two representing each Senate seat. Thus, the biggest delegation is 55 for California. Washington DC, Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming have the least amount of votes at three each. In most states, the winner scoops all the votes, and, famously, 270 are required for a majority of the total of 538.  

The electors are local state officials, party activists, grandees (Bill Clinton and Donald Trump Jr have served) and others meeting in state capitals, and the convention is that they vote according to the certified results of the election.

Theoretically, at least in some states, the people appointed by the respective states can defy their mandate and “go rogue”. These are called “faithless” electors. In fact, a record 10 faithless electors defied their instructions in 2016, in both directions, with the likes of Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul and Faith Spotted Eagle recording symbolic protest votes. Many states have procedures to nullify such maverick behaviour, and Mr Biden’s majority in the college (306 to 232) was too large to be affected by a rebellion.

However, Mr Biden will still need to be elected a third and final time before his inauguration.

The results of each state’s electoral college voting have to be forwarded to Congress where a formal accounting will take place. On 6 January, vice president Mike Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, is obliged to oversee these proceedings and the state-by-state declaration of voting, plus take any contentious points of order and general expressions of dissent from Congress members. The proceedings are a formality.  

The vice president must then declare the winner – this time Joe Biden – duly elected and offer them God’s blessing. No doubt some Republican representatives and senators will object that the 2020 election was stolen through voting irregularities, but they will be ignored by Mr Pence; the proceedings are a formality even if a senator refuses to sign a declaration of their state’s result. 

The electoral college, as has been witnessed in recent weeks, is an unusual and flawed method of putting a head of state and government in place, but it cannot be changed without a protracted and probably doomed national campaign to amend the constitution.  

In the end, the US constitution has survived the strains of recent weeks, during which all of its pillars – the executive, legislatures and courts – have been involved. The continuation of the electoral college vote and the decision by the Supreme Court to throw out the latest attempt to have the election result annulled provide the final evidence that the system of checks and balances devised in the late 18th century is still functioning, albeit with some grinding and groaning along the way.