CT set tone for Biden’s big day in Electoral College
HARTFORD — A usually dull quadrennial ceremony with roots dating back to 1787 took on a new meaning Monday when the state’s Democratic electors gathered in the State Capitol to cast Connecticut’s seven electoral votes, part of Joe Biden’s victory in a contentious presidential contest that President Donald Trump has yet to concede.
Connecticut was an early participant in the day’s blue tide that swept across the nation’s time zones to give Biden the expected 306 electoral votes — with 232 for Trump — as the country’s electors did their duty, despite criticism by the president and supporters who in Georgia even held their own protest ceremony for Trump, awarding him the 16 votes that in reality, went to Biden.
Here, the casting of the ballots was done in the historic Senate chamber on the Capitol’s third floor, with the Biden votes signed and sealed for delivery to Congress, which will meet in the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 6. There, Vice President Mike Pence, in the waning days of the Trump administration’s single term, will announce the tally.
Similar ceremonies took place in state capitals and other locations throughout the nation, as well as Washington, D.C. At 5:45 p.m., California’s 55 electoral ballots took Biden over the threshold, to 270 votes. It was around the time that Trumped tweeted to announced the resignation of Attorney General William Barr, who was the subject of recent attacks from Trump after Barr announced there was no widespread voter fraud.
Unlike battleground states such as Michigan, where protesters demonstrated for Trump, there was no pro-Trump presence outside the rainy Connecticut Capitol building.
Vermont cast the first electoral votes for Biden and Kamala Harris during a late-morning ceremony in the Capitol building in Montpelier. Connecticut’s event occurred in a nearempty Capitol, observing public health protocol in the pandemic.
“I am confident and proud to say our election was safe, secure and accurate with the diligence and hard work of our local election officials and poll
workers who helped make it possible,” said a masked Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, before giving the electors their oath of office in the ornate Senate chamber. “Our voters took charge and that’s why we’re standing here today in celebration of a successful, audited, certified and completed election with a new president and vice president to be sworn in this January: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
The hour-long event took on added solemnity when Merrill mentioned the occasion coincided with the eighth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Much of the event was produced virtually.
By 12:20. p.m., electors had filled out their commitments. State Troubador Nekita Waller, in a previously recorded performance in the chamber, sang “Lift Every Voice.” The votes were placed in a traditional ballot box said to be made from the wood of the famed Charter Oak. By 12:30, in separate votes, Biden and Harris were officially confirmed in Connecticut, which voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic ticket over Trump and Pence.
Gov. Ned Lamont, in a statement shortly after the vote, congratulated Harris and Biden, whom he had supported early in the election cycle.
“During the historic 2020 presidential election, we saw record participation from voters across our state and country despite the challenges of a global pandemic,” Lamont said. “While today’s meeting is a symbolic moment in our democratic process, it will ensure that the voice of our voters is heard and assist
in the peaceful transfer of power.”
Because of the pandemic, this year’s Electoral College was organized with social distancing in mind. The seven electors were scattered around the Senate circle of 36 seats, with about four seats apart. All seven wore face masks. One elector, Myrna Watanabe of Harwinton in Litchfield County, also wore a face shield.
Only Merrill, Scott Bates, her deputy, and about a half dozen staff were physically in the chamber for the event. State Party Chair Nancy DiNardo of Trumbull, wearing a “Biden” face mask, stood in the back of the room, along with a few staffers from the senate Democrats and the governor’s office.
A large projector screen was set up to the left of the raised Senate podium, where Merrill presided.
The pledge of allegiance was taped by students from Danbury’s Center for Alternative Excellence and Darien’s Middle School. The National Anthem was also previously taped and performed by the UCONNMen a cappella group, and Bishop John Seldors, minister of the United Church of Christ in Hartford provided the invocation in a previously taped address.
Voices were muffled throughout the ceremony because of face masks.
Susan Barrett, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee from Fairfield, was appointed chairwoman. “It's the greatest honor,” Barrett said. “But, you know, someone asked me, would you do it again? And I said I would offer it to other people because I think it's such an honor.”
Each elector signed certificates of appointment of the presidential electors and the certificates of ascertainment of votes. Each had to be sealed with wax, a vestige of the historic nature of the event, and Merrill said Connecticut is one of a handful of states that still does it.
One copy of each will be forwarded by certified mail to the vice president in advance of the Jan. 6 count. Two copies are delivered to
Merrill, two copies forwarded by certified mail to the national archivist at the National Archives and Record Administration in Washington and one copy will be delivered to Honorable Stefan Underhill, chief judge of the US District Court of Connecticut in New Haven.
The electors are allowed to receive $10 a day for their duties but as tradition holds, they voted unanimously to waive the compensation. .
After the proceeding, the electors tried to take a socially distance photo with the ballot box. Forgetting that everyone was wearing a face mask, a staffer taking the picture asked everyone to smile, which prompted some laughter.