What happens to the presidential elector votes after the electors meet in St. Paul?
Federal law requires that copies of the “Certificate of Votes Cast” by Minnesota presidential electors be sent to the Vice President (as President of the United States Senate), to the National Archives, to the senior federal district court judge, and to the Secretary of State of Minnesota. If the certificate sent to the Vice-President were to be lost in transit, one of the copies sent elsewhere would be substituted. The electoral votes of each state are counted in a joint session of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives in early January 2009. After the electoral votes from all states are counted, the Vice-President of the United States declares the candidates receiving a majority of the electoral votes cast in all the states to be President-elect and Vice President-elect. The President-elect and Vice President-elect take their oaths of office for four year terms beginning at noon on January 20, 2009.
