It’s official. Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.
The Senate and House of Representatives just concluded a joint session in which the electoral college vote results of the Nov. 4 election were counted and certified with great fanfare.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as president of the Senate, presided over the meeting and read the official results - Obama of Illinois received 365 of the 538 electoral votes for president and Sen. John McCain of Arizona received 173. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware received 365 electoral votes for the office of vice president while Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska received 173 votes, Cheney said. 
With the electoral votes duly recorded by Congress, Obama will be free to take the oath of office on Jan. 20, on the west front of the Capitol.
For more Reuters political news, click here.
Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Ballots from the Electoral College are carried into the House Chamber for joint session of Congress/ Vice President Cheny hands Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania vote results from Ohio.)
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3 comments so far
Although the real story is the election was not a popular vote landslide, this is one of those stories to tell us what we already know about the electoral vote.
However, I did love it in 2000 when Al Gore had to read the electoral results as president of the senate.
BTW, Bush did indeed win the 2000 election. He never once was behind in the Florida recount. Even the democrats, led by majority leader Richard Gephardt, did a full state recount six months later and Bush still won. The funny thing is, if Al Gore could have won his home state of Tennessee, he would have won the electoral count.
- Posted by TCTC of course Bush was not behind in the recount in 2000 because not all the votes were counted. The recount was halted by Katherine Harris and then by a stacked Supreme Court. Not to mention the dirty trick played by Rep. operatives in Ohio and Florida. Making phone calls to people with outstanding traffic tickets and telling them they would be arrested if they showed up to vote being just one of those tricks. Let’s talk voting machine results, all over the country in places with voting machines exit polls did not even come close to the machine tallies. While in states with a paper ballots, like mine, exit polls and ballot results were dead on. It’s funny how you are so quick to point out the cinder in the eye of the Democrats.
- Posted by Eric HYeah, whatever…
- Posted by TC