The Electoral College is the system in which votes are counted, processed, and verified during the US presidential elections every four years. Within the electoral college states are a selection of electors who meet to cast votes for presidential and vice presidential candidates after Election Night before sending their count to Congress to verify. Overall there are 538 electors in total which represent the 50 States and Washington DC, however, US territories such as Puerto Rico, American Samoa and others do not have representation in the Electoral College when deciding the President.
The Electoral College was designed by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Essay No. 68 and it is meant to give an equal say in the elections in an effort to protect the interests of states with smaller populations from being left out of the electoral process due to other States having larger populations. Each state is given a specific number of votes, that number is determined by adding the number of Senators and Representatives for each state, and, in the case of Washington DC, the city has 3 electoral votes to represent them in the Electoral College.
Fox News' Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
Shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage on the "Rocky Steps" of the Philadelphia Art Museum at her final rally before Election Day, billionaire Oprah Winfrey declared her fear a Donald Trump presidency could curtail Americans' right to vote.
Winfrey was introduced by Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff around 11 PM ET on Monday, and brought to the dais with her 10 first-time voters who have or will be casting a ballot for Harris, including MLS Philadelphia Union forward Eddy Davis III.
Winfrey recounted hiking on a recent Sunday and meeting a woman who said she would "sit this [election] out."
"So I said, ‘sit this one out’. We don't get to sit this one out. -- If we don't show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again."
"And let me be very clear, if you do not make sure that the people in your life can get to the polls, that is a mistake."
Winfrey added that supporting Harris is a vote to protect and defend the Constitution.
She also quoted from former President John F. Kennedy's "ask not what you can do for your country" address, adding "what you can do for every young woman who has died because she was not eligible to receive the emergency medical care she desperately needed because of the abortion ban – and what you can do for yourself and what you can do for everyone and everything you cherish, is vote."
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Charles Creitz.
There have been just five U.S. presidents in history who were elected without carrying the popular vote, most recently, of course, Donald Trump in 2016. Trump edged out Hillary Clinton in the key battleground state of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan to win the electoral vote despite earning 2.8 million fewer votes nationwide than his Democratic rival.
Here are the other four presidents who’ve eked out similar, somewhat unconventional paths to victory:
John Quincy Adams: In 1824, Adams lost both the popular and electoral votes to Andrew Jackson, a member of the same party and one of four candidates vying for the presidency. Jackson had secured a plurality of the electoral votes, but not an outright majority. The top three candidates were then sent to the House of Representatives for a final vote, which selected Adams over Jackson.
Rutherford B. Hayes: Like Adams, Hayes’s 1876 victory over Samuel Tilden, a Democrat, was decided by Congress after Republicans contested the results of three state elections. The dispute prompted Congress to create a bipartisan commission which ultimately ruled in favor of Hayes and his electors. Hayes won with 185 electoral votes.
Benjamin Harrison: In 1888, Harrison lost the popular vote to Democratic president, Grover Cleveland, by an estimated 90,000 votes, but won the Electoral College votes by a strong 233-168 majority. Cleveland then ran against him again and won in 1893, making him the only U.S. president to serve two non-consecutive terms– pending, of course, the results of the 2024 election.
George W. Bush: In 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Democratic Vice President Al Gore by 500,000 votes but secured the presidency, in a famously heated election that hinged on the state of Florida, allegations of “hanging chads” in punch-card ballots, and ultimately, a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled in Bush’s favor, and he ultimately bested Gore with a 271 to 266 electoral advantage.
{{#rendered}}There have been growing calls in recent years to reform or abolish the Electoral College completely in favor of the popular vote, amid criticism that the electoral system overlooks voters in all but a handful of swing states, giving outsize representation to states with a smaller population.
The push has been backed primarily by Democrats, whose presidential candidates Al Gore and Hillary Clinton each won the popular votes but lost the presidency in 2000 and 2016, respectively.
But the push to do away with the system is not new. Since the 1800s, members of Congress have introduced more than 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College by way of constitutional amendment.
But the most popular alternative in recent years, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, works around the constitutional amendment process. . If put in place, it would require a state’s electoral votes to go to the candidate that wins the national popular vote.
The compact would only take effect, however, if states with a combined total of 270 electoral votes agree to join – and to date, the compact’s Democrat-led supporters have failed to secure buy-in from many Republican-led and toss-up states.
Voting in the name of a deceased person is a form of voting fraud and it is in which someone, either a citizen or noncitizen, casts a vote for any election in the name of a deceased person who was left on the voter registration list after their passing. Like other forms of voting fraud, this voting in the name of a deceased person is a crime and each state has varying penalties for these crimes such as fines and probations.
This was one of the main arguments of the Trump campaign in the 2020 election, However, in states including Arizona, Virginia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, they were found to be false, and only very few cases were substantiated. To combat this, many states have created signature verification and additional laws to safeguard their elections from people who try to fill out and submit votes on behalf of dead relatives and other citizens.
Fox News' Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
In the United States there are multiple requirements for voting within Elections. The major requirement is that voters must be a US citizen to vote in Federal elections. Some areas of the United States allow for non-citizens to vote in local elections but not federal ones. Voters must be 18 years or older before Election Day to vote. Some states allow for 17 year olds who will be 18 by Election Day to vote in primaries. Voters must register before the deadline to be put on voter rolls, however North Dakota does not require voter registration and it is the only state to do so.
In the United States, those who are not noncitizens, convicted of a felony or currently serving time for other types of crime, in US territories, and/or have some mental disability may not be or are not able to vote. These rules vary by state. Over recent years, Congress has debated whether or not these groups of people should have the right to vote in general and local elections leading to the argument of if this is a type of voter suppression or not.
Fox News' Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}Gwen Walz, wife of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz, indicated offering tampons in school bathrooms would help students learn to read during an appearance on Katie Couric's podcast Sunday, October 27,
Couric asked Walz about her husband being called "Tampon Tim," a nickname coined by conservatives after he signed a bill in his state that would put free menstrual products in all school restrooms, including boys' rooms.
"If kids are hungry in school, what that does to brain and learning, you're not going to learn to read," Walz said. "So if you're talking about learning to read and closing gaps then you better take away the barriers for that. If that's tampons, then that's tampons, right?"
"Take away the barriers and let's get to the real work of this, not get lost in what are components and, as some people would say, you know, equaling the playing field or whatever it might be," she said.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Kendall Tietz.
Sirius XM radio host Megyn Kelly campaigned for former President Trump in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania in hopes of convincing the remaining undecided president to rally behind him over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kelly revealed Monday on her show that the Trump campaign had invited her to appear alongside the Republican nominee in Pittsburgh. She previously announced she would vote for Trump in the presidential race against President Biden before he withdrew from the race.
Kelly joined Trump on stage to praise him as a "protector of women" and that is the reason she is endorsing him.
"He will be a protector of women. And it's why I'm voting for him," she said. "He will close the border. He will keep the boys out of girls sports and where they don't belong. And you know what else? One more thing. He will look out for our boys, to our forgotten boys and our forgotten men. Guys like you. Guys like these guys. Who got the calluses on their hands? Who work for a living with the beards and the tats. Who maybe have a beer after work and don't want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyoncé, who will never have to face the consequences of her disastrous economic policies."
The former Fox News anchor famously had a tense relationship with Trump during the 2016 election cycle.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn.
Voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, were split between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in the famous midnight vote.
Trump and Harris each received three votes.
In 2020, President Biden secured all five votes in Dixville Notch.
Four years prior, Democrat Hillary Clinton received the most votes with four, followed by two votes for Trump, one vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson and one write-in vote for now-Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
{{#rendered}}Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has indicated that former President Donald Trump plans to give him "control" over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Kennedy indicated that Trump "promised" him "control" over "public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others," plus the USDA.
He made the comments in a video clip that has been circulating online.
The New York Times reported that Kennedy noted via text that the video was a recording from an internal talk with campaign workers regarding get-out-the-vote efforts for Trump.
"I stand ready to help him rid the public health agencies of their pervasive conflicts and corruption and restore their tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science," Kennedy said in a statement, according to the outlet.
The HHS secretary and USDA secretary posts are both cabinet-level positions.
"No formal decisions about Cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again by providing families with safe food and ending the chronic disease epidemic plaguing our children," Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
"President Trump will also establish a special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses," she added.
This is an excerpt from an article written by Fox News' Alex Nitzberg.
Media outlets will likely make some unofficial calls on election night from states where the contest is not very close, but expect a process of at least a few days – and potentially as long as several weeks – before the final call is made on who the next president is in 2025.
Every state handles its elections differently, but they all have laws guiding the certification timeline. Generally, after all votes in a state are counted, a board of state election officials reviews the count to assess it for accuracy and completeness. Once that review is completed, the results must then be certified at both the local and state level.
The certification process includes a review by election officials, boards of canvassers or those given authority to certify under state law. Certification may come from the state’s chief election official, which can range from its Secretary of State or Lt. Governor to its board of canvassers or other state-level entity. In the end, it is up to Congress to certify the results at the federal level. At that point, we have a new president.
In 2020, the last state to certify its vote count was California, on Dec. 11. However, it took more than 2 months from Election Day before Congress officially certified the votes.
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