Electoral College Votes on Obama v. Romney Today

A 2008 photo, showing VP Dick Cheney (right)
handling the Electoral College ballot certificate.
(photo: people.howstuffworks.com)

I suppose you thought in early November that Barack Obama had won re-election as president of the United States. Well, he really didn't. That vote merely set up the people's presidential preference for their state's electors. Welcome to the Electoral College, one of the more arcane ways a developed nation chooses its leader.

Today's Washington Post dutifully discusses the college from which no degrees are issued, no faculty is hired, and no tuition is charged. The ultimate irony in the Electoral College story is that it does not have final say in the presidential vote. That privilege belongs to Congress, which rubber stamps the college's vote in early January.