Wyoming’s Three GOP Electors Cast Their Votes for President Trump
Wyoming's three Republican electors cast their ballots on Monday for President Donald Trump, who won the state with 193,559 votes compared to Democrat Joe Biden's 73,491 votes in the Nov. 3 general election.
The formal, routinely scheduled and seemingly boring Electoral College event on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December garnered much larger than usual attention because of the protests and unsuccessful lawsuits about baseless claims of voter fraud regarding Biden's win.
At the end of the day, electors in the 50 states and the District of Columbia cast 306 votes for Biden and 232 for Trump.
Wyoming has only three electoral votes -- one each for the U.S. Senators and one for the U.S. House Representatives -- that proportionately have a greater clout than other states.
When they cast their ballots on Nov. 3, voters were actually voting for those who would elect the presidential and vice presidential candidates.
In Wyoming, the Republican electors were Karl Allred of Evanston, Marty Halvorson of Etna and former House Speaker Doug Chamberlain of LaGrange, said Monique Meese, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Secretary of State.
State law requires they meet at noon, and they met first in Secretary of State Ed Buchanan's office and then Gov. Mark Gordon's conference room, Meese said.
Here's where the process is technical, formal and legally binding.
The three electors are given two ballots with the names of all the presidential and vice presidential candidates who were certified to run in Wyoming.
They on one ballot they placed an X in a box by Trump's name, on the other they placed an X by Vice President Mike Pence's name, and then they sign their names on the six total ballots.
Those ballots are called "certificates of vote."
The certificates then have the Great Seal of the State of Wyoming placed on them.
There's a second certificate called the "certificate of ascertainment."
This certificate notifies the unsuccessful presidential candidates and their electors that the three Republican electors cast their ballots for Trump. The certificates of ascertainment are signed by Buchanan and Gordon and sent to the other candidates.
The next step occurs on Jan. 6 when Congress meets to count the votes in a joint session overseen by U.S. Senate President Pence.
On Jan. 20, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president.
For more information about the electoral process, visit the website of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Major Newspaper Headlines From the Year You Were Born