Vermont’s three electors cast their votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris after being sworn in at the Statehouse on Monday.
Vermont’s electors were the first in the nation to vote.
Under federal law, on this date, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their ballots, which reflect the decisions made by each state’s voters. Collectively, the electors form the nation’s Electoral College. Each state’s results will be sent to Washington and tallied Jan. 6 at a joint session of Congress.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos administered the oath of office for the electors — Kesha Ram, a state senator-elect from Chittenden County; Washington County Democratic Party chair Linda Gravell; and former state Democratic Party chair Terje Anderson.
“All of the hard work, focus and attention to details have resulted in a safe, secure, accurate and accessible election,” Condos said.
Condos said the Biden-Harris ticket received 242,820 votes in Vermont, 65% of the statewide vote total in the race for president. The state certified its vote results in November.
Ram is the first woman of color to be a Vermont elector. She was appointed last summer before she won a state Senate seat.
“I feel like I have so many other people with me casting this vote,” she said. “And that’s really the privilege and honor of today, bringing all of their spirits and tireless work with me here to the Statehouse for this historic moment.”
She particularly thanked former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who Ram called after she was appointed elector, to express her appreciation for helping to get women to “this point in history.”
“I’m thinking of all the other women who don’t get as much credit [as Kunin], but have also fought long and hard for this moment,” she said, “some who we lost before they got to see a woman in the White House, and some who I’m grateful are here to celebrate.”
At a national level, President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud have caused an ongoing controversy, including some calls for electors to cast their votes for Trump, regardless of whether he won the popular vote.
Vermont Senate President Tim Ashe tweeted an email he got last week from the American Family Association, a Christian organization, urging him to remove the current electors, including Ram.
“Never in hundreds of sermons at St. Mary’s did I hear lying + being sore losers were biblical family values,” Ashe said in his tweet.
Ram said the elector controversy hadn’t affected her. “There was a very minor last-ditch effort to potentially derail this process, but nothing that ever got directly to me,” she said.
“I have felt mostly like friends are just saying, ‘I can’t believe I know someone in the Electoral College!’” she said. “And I share that feeling.”
