The Electoral College will finally vote this Monday

The 538 members of the Electoral College will convene in their respective states Monday to vote for the United States' next president, a process that is usually little more than a legal formality following the popular vote tally on Election Day. This year, however, last-ditch efforts are ongoing to convince at least 37 Republicans to become "faithless electors" who vote for someone other than President-elect Donald Trump, who lost the popular contest to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes.

Attempts to oust Trump in this manner are not expected to succeed. "I suspect literally no one voted for electors in November with the goal of empowering them as people to exercise independent judgment," explains Rob Richie of FairVote. "People voting for Trump wanted his associated electors to vote for him. Same with people voting for Clinton. So [I] think expecting them to act against that mandate now is a highly questionable position."

But whatever happens, don't expect to find out before the end of this year: The Electoral College votes will not be counted until Jan. 6 in a joint congressional session, at which point members of Congress may choose to challenge individual electors or statewide results.

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