Bill and Hillary Clinton cast their Electoral College votes for President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on Monday afternoon in the Assembly Chamber of the New York State Capitol.
New York’s 29 delegates to the Electoral College met in person in the state Capitol today to cast their ballots for President-Elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.
New Yorks’ delegates are some of the state’s most active, prominent and faithful members of the Democratic Party, including mayors Kathy Sheehan of Albany, Byron Brown of Buffalo, and Lovely Warren of Rochester; long-time labor leaders such as Randi Weingarten and Mario Cilento; NAACP leader Hazel Dukes; state legislators Carl Heastie and Andrew Stewart-Cousins; Attorney General Letitia James; state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli; and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Governor Andrew Cuomo presided over the delegation’s voting process, which was held in the Assembly Chamber in the state Capitol. The voting began at noon and lasted less than one hour. The delegates wore masks and were let into the chamber a few at a time to maintain social distance.
“We want to expedite these proceedings today given the obvious COVID concerns, so let me be brief,” Cuomo said. “But the brevity of our proceedings does not minimize the gravity of our actions. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This pandemic, these masks, this physical configuration, are a stark reminder to the nation that government matters, and leadership matters, and good government can not only improve people’s lives, but can literally save people’s lives.
“So today, let the people choose our government and let us move forward.”
The vote by New York’s delegation and 49 other states on Monday ends more than a month of legal wrangling by outgoing President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters to try to overturn the November 3 election results.
For 39 days, President Trump, his lawyers and his supporters have repeated unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud in several states.
But with the Electoral College votes being cast in statehouses across the U.S. today, Biden’s path to the presidency is now certain.
California’s Electoral College vote was scheduled to begin at approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, pushing Biden and Harris across the 270 vote threshold needed to declare victory.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected president and vice president today,” Cuomo said at the start of his regularly scheduled COVID briefing, which followed the Electoral College vote. “That was done. We had [the voting] here because wanted to make sure we followed all the laws. This has been a litigious time.”
