TAMPA, Fla. — While Florida residents cast their votes on the first Tuesday of November, they are actually telling the electors which candidate they want to be elected.
The United States uses the Electoral College process, which is where each state gets a certain number of electors who decide who is going to be president. Florida gets 27 electoral votes and each state's political parties choose their own slate of potential electors, according to the Library of Congress.
After residents submit their ballots, during what's called the popular vote, their votes go to a statewide tally. In Florida, the winner gets all the electoral votes for that state. So if the Republican candidate wins the popular vote in Florida, then the Republican's slate of electors will vote during the electoral college.
So, when do electors vote?
The Florida Electoral College is scheduled for Dec. 17, according to Florida's Division of Elections' website. Electoral votes must be received by the President of the Senate, who is Vice President Kamala Harris, and the Archivist, who is Colleen J. Shogan, no later than the fourth Wednesday of December, which is Dec. 25 this year.
A candidate needs at least 270 electors, which is more than half of the total votes of 538, to win the election.
When is the winner of the presidential election announced?
Congress will meet on Jan. 6 in a joint session to count the electoral votes submitted nationwide. The President of the Senate will then declare who was elected.
If no presidential candidate wins the majority then the House of Representatives decides the election by a majority vote. The vote would be taken by state, with each state having one vote. If no vice presidential candidate wins the majority, then the Senate elects the person by majority with each senator having one vote, according to the National Archives.
Once the winners are chosen, the president-elect and vice president-elect take the Oath of Office on inauguration day, which is Jan. 20 at noon.
