What Voters Need to Know About Presidential Elections

Election Overtime - a project of the Election Reformers Network - has released a guide to help voters navigate the presidential election process. We also hope it will help media and reform partners as they work to honestly and clearly communicate the outcome of November's election.

At first, presidential elections may appear complex—a web of local, state, and federal actors. But each entity plays a specific role according to defined rules. A clearer understanding of these roles and rules can help demystify the process. The summaries below outline the key responsibilities of (and constraints on) various actors at each step of the presidential election process: from state legislatures, to candidates and parties, to the courts, to electors and finally to Congress.
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State Legislatures
Once election day has come, state legislators have no role in presidential election results.

1. They can pass laws before the election deciding how the state will select its electors (winner-take-all, by congressional district, etc.).  
2. They cannot change how the state selects its electors after the elections.
3. They cannot select a different set of electors than those chosen based on the certified results.  
4. They do not certify the presidential results in their state.

Candidates and Parties
Candidates and/or parties have many opportunities to ensure the accuracy of the count. They have no legitimate grounds to claim they legally won once results showing they did not are final, and all court cases are resolved.​

1. Candidates and/or parties can designate observers to watch important election processes, in accordance with state law.
2. Candidates in close elections can observe and/or request recounts in most states.
3. ​Candidates and parties can contest results in court.  

Courts
Elections are conducted according to procedures set by law. Courts are the backstop candidates and officials call on to ensure the law is followed and the institutions we rely on every day to resolve disputes. ​

1. ​Courts can order election boards, canvass boards and similar bodies to certify results if they refuse to do so.
2. Courts cannot hear (and must dismiss) challenges if the court lacks the authority to hear the case, if the plaintiff lacks the right to bring the case, or if there is insufficient evidence or legal basis to continue the case.  
3. Courts can hear and decide challenges to the election results if there is sufficient evidence that the votes were not cast or counted according to law.  

Results
Election laws alone determine when results are final.

1. ​Media projections have no bearing on the results.
2. Whether a candidate concedes has no bearing on the results (though failing to do so can create risks of political violence).
3. The election result in a state becomes final when the governor (or other executive per state law) issues the “Certificate of Ascertainment” within 36 days of Election Day (by Dec. 11, 2024).  This document indicates which electors have been appointed by the state, based on the results of the state's popular vote.
   
4. The Certificate of Ascertainment is subject to change by court order if there is a successful legal challenge before the meeting of electors (December 17th).  

Electors and the Electoral College
The President is elected through an indirect system where voters in each state cast ballots for their preferred candidate, and the results of that election are used to determine which electors should be appointed by the state.  These electors then cast "electoral votes" for the President and Vice President.

1. In 38 states (including Washington, DC), electors are required by state law to vote for a pledged candidate. In 2020, the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of such laws, ruling that state may prohibit "faithless electors" and ensure that the state's electoral votes count for the proper candidate.
2. All but two states use a "winner-take-all" system, awarding all of the state's electoral votes to the candidate who wins that state's popular vote. Maine and Nebraska award electors based on a combination of statewide and district-level results.  The number of electors per state equals its total number of Senators and Representatives in Congress.
   
3. Electors are required to meet in their respective states on "the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December" (Dec. 17, 2024) to cast their electoral votes.

​Congress
The role of Congress in counting the electoral votes​ is extremely limited, and Congress does not “certify” presidential results. ​

1. The Vice President—without discretion—opens each state's official certificate of electoral votes.
2. Tellers appointed by Congress then count the electoral votes of each state in the presence of Congress.
3. Members of Congress can object to counting a state's electoral votes on a very limited set of grounds that are extremely unlikely to occur. (For example: did the elector vote for a President who is over 35, as required by the Constitution?)
4. Members of Congress cannot object to the results in any state so long as those results have been certified according to law.
5. In the very unlikely event that no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House picks the President (with each state's delegation having one vote) and the U.S. Senate picks the Vice President.

The project is funded by grants from the Bridge Alliance, The Carter Center, the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation, and by grassroots contributions to Election Reformers Network