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WE’RE NOW ABOUT halfway through the US presidential transition and Monday is a crucial day as part of the process.
On Monday the electors will officially meet to cast their vote for the presidency, essentially locking in Joe Biden’s inauguration next month.
When US voters cast their ballots on 3 November, they did not directly elect the next president but rather 538 ‘electors’ charged with selecting the president.
Anyone who paid any attention to the US election will know that winning the presidency is all about having the requisite number (270) of electors, or electoral college votes.
The number of electoral college votes each state has is based on how many representatives it has in congress, which is in turn based on population.
For example, there are 39 electors in Texas, 55 in California and three in Wyoming.
In all but two of the states, when a candidate in presidential elections gets the most amount of votes in the state they get all the electoral college votes in that state.
The electors can only be formally chosen when a state has ‘certified’ its electoral results. This effectively means when a state says it has finished counting and has declared a winner.
The Donald Trump campaign has launched dozens of legal actions in various states in bids to either halt counting or to force recounts with little success for the US president.
Out of the roughly 50 lawsuits filed around the country contesting the 3 November vote, Trump has lost more than 35 and the others are pending.
The process of making Biden president passed an important mark last Tuesday with the deadline for states to have certified their results.
Following that, this coming Monday is the day when the electors meet in their respective states to cast their votes.
The day is actually written down in law as saying the electors have to vote “on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December”. This year that falls on 14 December.
Among the electors include South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Trump elector who could be a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, her party’s 2018 nominee for governor and a key player in Biden’s win in the state.
Electors are bound to vote for the person certified by their state and there are fines if they do not follow those directions.
After the electors cast their ballots, the votes then have nine days to arrive in Capitol Hill.
The schedule sees the votes getting to Capitol Hill in time for the new Congress to be sworn in on 3 January.
Three days later, members of the House of Representatives and Senate meet to read and count the votes.
Congress is therefore tasked with choosing the president based on those votes ahead of inauguration day on 20 January.
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Mattress amnesty- they’re taking the Mick.
@John Jones:
He’ll be OK. His compadres will spring him.
Would make more sense if it was a collection service for those who have no way of transporting bulky items like mattresses .
only clean mattresses. ..the problem is it’s old &dirty mattresses people want to get rid of
This kind of innovative thinking makes me proud to be Irish. I couldn’t even imagine a better way to blow €200,000. Unless of course we spent it providing everyone with a little of the same drugs Naughton is taking. The whole thing might make a bit more sense then to everyone else who might have thought it was a brain fart of an idea that should never have made it past the underpants naughton should be wearing on his head.
Mattress amnesty I’m really confused.
Mick is turning himself in – for crimes against advertising.
Any locations in Cork?
I forked out €90 for 3 single mattresses at my local amenity centre, no wonder there being illegally dumped on a regular basis
@Noel Martin: you think they’re cheap for the council to get rid of? They’d half fill a skip. Not an excuse to illegally dump.
@Noel Martin: the more people are charged the more they will dump, when will this get through to the thick FG mind?
@Noel Martin: I can see a mattress levy been introduced on all new mattresses, there putting it on everything else.
Oh give it a rest and put this issue to bed
@Shoot Thepiano: very true. Important to sleep on it when making decisions like this
I’m sure the people who manage to find a way to transport mattresses to dump them in remote rural locations can find a way to transport them to an amenity centre.
In Australia they have a kerb collection once a year where you can put out what you normally can’t get rid off and the council picks it up works quiet well
Mattresses being dumped illegally are done so for a reason. Accepting only clean dry mattresses won’t solve dumping. All mattresses no matter what condition should be accepted.
Reactionary decision, should’ve slept on it.
They are probably collecting the mattress for their homeless hubs!
I don’t get it. One can break down a mattress in about 15 minutes with a stanley blade and cutters. Once the springs are cut apart, the mattress doesn’t take up much space.
Standard mattress of course, one of those memory foam ones would be a very different story.
Where, apart from Tuam, are the Galway collections? I could do N.Tipp too…
@Jane Alford: bummer. It was on Saturday. Journal on the spot as usual…
Why do it during the Summer? They should wait until Spring comes.
What sort of people dump mattresses? A joke. What about a dog crap amnesty while they are at it.
the going rate is 50 euro to remove a mattress , this is the reason they are dumped and cause litter problems across the country they should have a markup to recycle , http://www.mattressmonkey.ie
I hear they would make good flower beds lol
have your say