Mark Your Calendar for Important Election-Related Dates

Since 2010, the bipartisan organization No Labels has worked to promote collaboration across political and ideological divisions. The group has put together a variety of informational resources for voters, including an overview of what to expect immediately following the 2020 national election.

The 2020 election season has been marked by a combination of circumstances never before seen in American history. Held in the midst of multiple global health, economic, and social crises, it has also been rife with attempts to manipulate voters and derail the system of free, fair, and secure voting processes. In this climate, experts have urged voters to stay focused and calm. We should expect the normal process of vote-counting to take longer than usual due to larger voter turnout and significant increases in mail-in voting, due to the pandemic.

No Labels has provided these key facts and dates involving constitutional and other federal laws governing the post-Election Day timetable:

1. Lead-up to November 3, 2020: Electors prepare

The popular vote is the first part of the process of electing a president. The next step involves electors who represent each state and convene as the Electoral College to officially deliver that state’s electoral votes. Forty-eight states and Washington, DC, have a “winner-take-all” system of apportioning electors, with the winner of the popular vote in each state receiving the total of that state’s electors. In Nebraska and Maine, the system is set up differently: candidates receive electoral votes in proportion to the popular vote each receives.

State electors are nominated by their respective political parties well before Election Day. After each state tallies and certifies its popular vote, the winning party—or both parties in the case of Nebraska and Maine—officially empowers its electors to perform their duties in the Electoral College.

2. December 8, 2020: “Safe harbor” for vote count certification

Any disputed vote counts must be resolved within 35 days after Election Day. Per the Electoral Count Act of 1887, states must maintain the ability to conduct a popular vote recount or to resolve other election-related disputes until six days before the Electoral College meets to vote. The act puts in place a “safe harbor” clause requiring Congress to accept a state’s report of its own vote count, provided it falls within the stipulated 35 days. In 2020, this safe harbor deadline falls on December 8.

3. December 14, 2020: The Electoral College convenes

In 2020, the date scheduled for the Electoral College to meet is December 14. The electors assemble at their respective state legislatures and deliver their votes for president and vice president.

It is important to note that most experts consider the possibility of “faithless electors” unlikely to affect the outcome of an election. Both the Republican and Democratic parties maintain an interest in nominating and confirming only party loyalists—electors who will deliver their electoral vote for the candidate that won their party’s nomination and according to the results of the popular vote in their state.

While in a few elections, faithless electors have bucked their parties by failing to cast their votes for the candidates to whom they were pledged, some states allow for the replacement or fining of faithless electors. And many states, either through legislation or party regulations, explicitly require electors to cast their votes for the candidates the people have chosen.

After the electors cast their votes, their ballots are then delivered to the president of the Senate, the sitting Vice President of the US. The deadline in 2020 for these ballots to reach the Senate president is December 23.

4. January 6, 2021: Congress conducts its official vote count

Congress holds a joint session on the January 6 following the November election, in order to provide an official count of the votes delivered by the Electoral College. On this date, Congress can officially declare the winner of the presidential election.

The candidate who receives at least 270 electoral votes will be declared the winner by the president of the Senate. On only two occasions there has been a vote challenge at this late stage in the process. In 1969, a “faithless elector” emerged to cast his vote not for the candidate to whom he was pledged, but for a third-party candidate instead. In 2005, another challenge came out of the voting glitch that emerged in Ohio.

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution sets Inauguration Day for the winner of the election as January 20 of the following year.

On August 6, 2020, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced Senate Bill S.4517, through which he proposed to extend the “safe harbor” date for states to submit their certified vote count from December 8 to January 1, due to the unique circumstances during the coronavirus pandemic. The bill would additionally push back the date of the Electoral College vote from December 14 to January 2. At the end of October 2020, that bill had not yet moved forward, and experts saw its chances in the Democratically controlled House as low.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes