The election is today

[Meeker]

The real election, rather.

Members of the Electoral College will meet in their various State Capitols today and cast the official votes for President and Vice President of the United States.

Most polling indicates Obama will win this vote. However, there may be a slight Bradley Effect.

[Scam of God]

I'd be willing to wager that Sarah Palin gets one electoral vote, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Ron Paul get another.

[Franzl]

do we find out the results right away, or only when Congress counts them in January?

[Meeker]

do we find out the results right away, or only when Congress counts them in January?

I think most states check them before they send them (just in case something weird happens). I remember people in Minnesota freaking out on the day the electoral college met when John Edwards got an electoral vote.

[Lief 🗽]

It'll be important to watch states like Arizona and Iowa, to see if Obama underperforms and McCain overpeforms. Also, hopefully no one is an idiot and votes wrong. Also, I think my high school government teacher said that he would be a Republican elector in Texas this year. Of course, he also told us that we would be voting for Mickey Mouse. So...

[Franzl]

but very small....just 1-2% in Iowa and Arizona!

[Eraserhead]

Let's hope Edwards gets his second electoral vote! Woot!

[Keystone Phil]

While this is interesting, I enjoy the official count in Congress. I used to love watching the count from 2000. I loved watching Gore have to call the members to order. That always made me so happy. Too bad C-SPAN doesn't have it in their online archives anymore. The drama from that day almost makes me want all of that chaos to happen again just so we can see the challenges in the House. That is, of course, the political junkie inside of me talking. I'd really never want to go through that again.

[ilikeverin]

do we find out the results right away, or only when Congress counts them in January?

I think most states check them before they send them (just in case something weird happens). I remember people in Minnesota freaking out on the day the electoral college met when John Edwards got an electoral vote.

No, silly, "John Ewards" won an electoral vote.

[emailking]

The elector may have secretly intended to vote for John Ewards, but the joint session judged this to be a vote for John Edwards. So technically, Edwards won that electoral vote.

[emailking]

THis was all I could find on results.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/15/obama-formally-elected-nations-th-president/

It says Obama won but does not give a count. (Maybe they just presupposed the result.) Still, I think we probably would have heard by now if there were a surprise.

[Erc]

The Green Papers reports, with 17 out of 51 jurisdictions reporting, that Barack Obama leads narrowly in the EV count, 87 - 77.  (He doesn't say which 17 those are...but I think we'd have heard about any faithless electors if there were any).

EDIT:

Green Papers reports electors have voted as expected in:
AZ, ID, LA, MS, ND, SD, TX, UT, WY [McCain]
IL, ME, MI, NJ, OR, VA, WI [Obama]

Interesting note:  Governors Jim Doyle [D-WI] and Mike Rounds [R-SD] were both electors.  Other notables include Susan Thomas [R-WY] (widow of Sen. Craig Thomas), James Hoffa [D-MI], Andrew Madigan [D-IL] (brother of Lisa and son of Michael).

[Lief 🗽]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/electoral_vote;_ylt=AiL9zU3tvK.IoT2W1vUEsQmyFz4D

AP: No faithless or mistaken electors

[Middle-aged Europe]

So nobody voted for "Barack Osama"?

[minionofmidas]

The elector may have secretly intended to vote for John Ewards, but the joint session judged this to be a vote for John Edwards. So technically, Edwards won that electoral vote.

Which was especially insane as the Constitution explicitly bans electors from casting both their votes for the same person.

[Хahar 🤔]

Nothing? This is boring.

[emailking]

The elector may have secretly intended to vote for John Ewards, but the joint session judged this to be a vote for John Edwards. So technically, Edwards won that electoral vote.

Which was especially insane as the Constitution explicitly bans electors from casting both their votes for the same person.

That's not correct. The recipients of the votes for President and Vice President cannot both be from the elector's home state. So an elector in North Carolina could not have voted for John Edwards for both offices. But someone in Minnesota can.