MEMO: Overview of Georgia Electors Voting Process

After historic turnout and official certification from the Georgia Secretary of State, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are the certified winners of Georgia’s popular vote in the Presidential election contest that took place on November 3, 2020. Tomorrow, December 14th at 12PM, Georgia’s Democratic Electors will officially cast their votes for President and Vice President of the United States. 

Georgia’s Democratic Electors are Congresswoman-Elect Nikema Williams (GA-05), Stacey Abrams, State Rep. Bob Trammell (HD-132), State Sen. Steve Henson (SD-41), State Sen. Gloria Butler (SD-55), State Rep. Calvin Smyre (HD-135), State Rep. Pedro Marin (HD-96), Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, Rome City Commissioner Wendy Davis, District Attorney-elect Deborah Gonzalez, civil rights activist Bobby Fuse, Sachin Varghese, Houston County Democratic Party Chair Fenika Miller, Georgia Young Democrats President Rachel Paule, former Atlanta City Councilwoman Cathy Woolard, and Mr. Ben Myers. There are also three appointed alternates: Alaina Reaves, Bianca Keaton, and Jason Esteves. 

Each elector will cast two separate paper ballots – one for the presidency and one for the vice presidency (3 U.S. Code § 8). The electors will then count the votes for each candidate of each office and create six Certificates of Vote that list all individuals that received votes for the two offices (3 U.S. Code § 9). The six Certificates of Vote are then certified by the electors (3 U.S. Code § 10). To finalize the process, the Certificates of Vote are then disbursed to the individuals required by 3 U.S. Code § 11. One is sent to the President of the United State Senate, Vice President Mike Pence; two are sent to the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger; two are sent to the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero; and one is sent to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, a joint session of the United States Congress will meet to count the electoral college votes. The results will be given to the President of the Senate, who will then announce the results and declare Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, having received over 270 electoral votes, the elected President and Vice President (3 U.S. Code § 15).

The agenda for Monday’s electors meeting is below: 

• Congresswoman-elect and Democratic Party of Georgia Chairwoman Nikema Williams will call the meeting of the 2020 Georgia Electors to order at 12:00 noon.
• The electors will select a presiding officer and a secretary.
• The chosen secretary will complete a roll call of the electors.
• Opening remarks will be given by the presiding officer.
• Electors will vote for the office of President of the United States.
  • Those votes will be counted and results announced.
• Electors will vote for the office of Vice President of the United States.
  • Those votes will be counted and results announced.
• The votes for each office of each elector will be recorded on six original duplicate Certificates of Vote, which will be distributed as required by law
• Closing remarks will be given by the presiding officer.

Note on press access: Out of an abundance of caution during the coronavirus crisis and due to the limited space available, press will be pooled for the event and members of the public should plan to watch online. Interested press wishing to receive pool reports should sign up here by Monday 8:00am EST to receive them. 

The vote will be streamed live by Georgia Public Broadcasting. Feed information can be found here.