In the weeks following the election you’ve heard all about them – the Electoral College. On Monday Connecticut's seven Democratic electors gathered to cast a ballot for Joe Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris.
In the first socially distanced, masked ceremony in a state Capitol building -- seven Connecticut residents cast their votes for president and vice president of the United States
“Everyone’s talking about the electors and we see very clearly how fragile our democracy can be,” Dana Barcellos Allen, one of the seven electors, said.
“The Electoral College is a quark of American democracy, but a pivotal one,” Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said.
Merrill said each state chooses its own process for choosing electors. In Connecticut these positions are filled at party conventions.
“Even though original concept of the Electoral College is controversial and no longer functioning in the way it was originally intended it has become symbolic of closure for a presidential election,” Merrill said.
In Connecticut electors are bound by state law to cast a ballot for the candidate certified in the election.
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“Nationally 270 electoral votes must be secured in order to win the presidency and in nearly all the states including Connecticut by state statute, the presidential candidate who wins the state gets all of the state party’s electors,” Merrill said.
All seven of Connecticut’s votes were cast for Joe Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris.
“The gravity of the situation you just can’t really describe it. I’m a little bit speechless with how amazing that felt in representing the voices of over 1 million Connecticut voters,” Barcellos Allen said.
For some Monday might have been a formality, but some electors say it has more meaning because Trump's refusal to concede
“I think after today hopefully we’ll have a nice transfer of power,” Susan Barrett, one of the seven electors, said..
For William Smith, Monday’s vote was monumental.
“It’s once in a lifetime. And when I say a lifetime I’m already 94. It’s very monumental for me,” Smith said.
