Punchbowl News reports in its Tuesday morning newsletter that "Democrats Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jon Ossoff (Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.) will be sworn in as new senators on Wednesday afternoon, according to a Senate source. This will come shortly after Biden and Kamala Harris take their own oaths of office. As VP, Harris is expected to swear in the majority making trio."
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Kamala Harris resigned from the Senate effective at noon EST Monday. The move comes two days before her inauguration as vice president. In that role, Harris will become president of the Senate. This is a largely ceremonial role, but one that it includes the ability to cast tiebreaking votes. That will take on added importance this year given the chamber's upcoming 50-50 split.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed Secretary of State Alex Padilla to serve the final two years of Harris's term. Until he is sworn in the Senate will have 51 Republicans and 47 Democrats (including two independents). The Harris seat and one in Georgia formerly held by Republican David Perdue are vacant. Perdue's term ended January 3; he lost a runoff to Democrat Jon Ossoff on January 5. Georgia's other Senate seat will be changing hands as Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in a special election runoff.
Last week, Wisconsin state Rep. Gary Tauchen (R) introduced a bill to change how the state allocates its electoral votes. If enacted, the state would move from the winner-take-all allocation currently used in 48 states to that of Maine and Nebraska. Those two states use the congressional district method, awarding two electoral votes to the popular vote winner of the state and one to the popular vote winner in each congressional district. U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R, MI-02) has suggested his state do the same.
At nearly the same time, Nebraska state Sen. Julie Slama sponsored a bill to switch that state back to winner-take-all. (Slama is a Republican, although the single body Nebraska legislature is officially nonpartisan.)
These proposals seem to pop up after each election. While often couched as fairer, the proposals are almost always partisan in nature, meant to benefit the electoral college fortunes of the party that introduces the bill. That is the case in all the above. The 31 electoral votes associated with the above 3 states went 27-4 for Joe Biden in 2020. If the proposed approaches had been in place, Donald Trump would have received 19 of them to 12 for Biden.
Georgia voters will decide the outcome of their two U.S. Senate seats in runoff elections Tuesday. Their choices will also determine which party controls the Senate in the new Congress. The runoffs were necessitated when no candidate in either race received 50% of the vote in the elections on November 3, as required by Georgia law.
Polls close at 7:00 PM ET. Live results will appear below.
The 2022 Senate Interactive Map is live. 34 Class 3 seats will be contested in this next cycle. 20 of those are held by Republicans, 13 by Democrats. The Georgia special election runoff on January 5 - Loeffler (R) vs. Warnock (D) - will determine which party will be defending the last seat. This special election is to complete the final two years of Johnny Isakson's term. Isakson resigned for health reasons at the end of 2019.
The new Senate will be seated January 3 and will initially be comprised of 51 Republicans and 48 Democrats. The Georgia seat currently held by David Perdue (R) - on its regular election cycle - will be vacant pending a separate January 5 runoff. Perdue is being challenged by Democrat Jon Ossoff.
If Republicans win either of these runoffs, they will retain control of the Senate.
Most competitive states in the 2020 presidential election, with a comparison to 2016. The faithless electors in 2016 are ignored for this analysis.
Decided by 5% or less
Eight states were decided by 5% or less in the 2020 presidential election. This is down from 11 states (and one congressional district) in this category in 2016. However, the net change was only a reduction of 10 electoral votes. Georgia (16 electoral votes) was the only state added to the list in 2020. It was the closest state in the country, decided by about 0.25%. The other four states flipped by Joe Biden: Pennsylvania (20), Michigan (16), Arizona (11) and Wisconsin (10) were also decided by 5% or less in 2016.
Joe Biden won the electoral college vote Monday, affirming him as the president-elect. California's 55 electoral votes put the former vice-president over the top.
With only Hawaii outstanding, the vote has gone smoothly, with all electors voting as pledged.
The ballots will be formally counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
The Electoral College meets on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in presidential election years. This year, that date is December 14. Electors will gather in their respective states (and District of Columbia) to cast their votes. Each elector will fill out two ballots, one for president and one for vice president.
After each state certifies the vote, it files a Certificate of Ascertainment that lists the slate of electors associated with each candidate and the number of votes received. The electors that meet Monday are those associated with the candidate receiving the most votes. For example, Biden won Massachusetts, so it is the slate of Democratic electors that will cast the vote.
As a practical matter, this means the Electoral College vote is largely symbolic; the final result is unlikely to deviate much (if at all) from the expected total of Biden 306, Trump 232. The votes will be forwarded to Congress, where they will be tallied in a joint session on January 6.
Hawaii became the final state to certify the results of its presidential election Tuesday, declaring Joe Biden the winner with 63.1% of the vote. All 50 states and DC have now certified their vote. As expected, president-elect Joe Biden emerged from this process with a 306-232 advantage in the electoral college.
