RALEIGH — The 58th Electoral College met on Monday, Dec. 14 to formally cast the votes for president and vice president. In Raleigh, electors for the state of North Carolina met at noon in the Old House Chamber at the State Capitol.
The 15 electors were nominated at the N.C. Republican Party’s convention, which took place virtually in July. As President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence won the state in the 2020 general election, the party’s electors were called to Raleigh for the vote.
NC has 15 electors, representing each congressional district and two at-large representing the state’s two senators. The electors were:
At Large — Michele A. Nix
At Large — Michael D. Whatley
First District — Thomas William Hill
Second District — Edwin L. Gavin II
Third District — Dave Wickersham
Fourth District — Angie Cutlip
Fifth District — Jonathan L. Fletcher
Sixth District — Tina Forsberg
Seventh District — Chauncey Lambeth
Eighth District — Susan Mills
Ninth District — Daniel Bradford Barry
Tenth District — Danny W. Overcash
Eleventh District — Mark Delk
Twelfth District — Melisa Bell Taylor
Thirteenth District — Blake E. Williams
N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall opened the Electoral College, and Delk, who lives in Asheville, was appointed to preside over the casting of votes.
Mills, a public-school teacher, said being of being an elector, “It just reinforced what our Founding Fathers established in the Constitution as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress and election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens.”
She also served as a teller, collecting the votes cast by the members.
“Being in the Old House Chamber of the State Capitol Building, knowing the history that has been made there and that was made yesterday is something I will never forget. 2020 made the ceremony a bit different from the past, but it also made it memorable. The chamber was not packed with dignitaries, but we were still made to feel special,” she added.
Guilford County’s Tina Forsberg said of the experience, “What a privilege to represent the citizens of the Sixth Congressional District and cast our state’s votes for President Trump and Vice President Pence. It is a solemn duty I pray will be similarly received and adjudicated next month in Congress. May God continue to bless this nation as we face whatever lies ahead.”
Both houses of Congress will meet in a special session on Jan. 6, 2021, for the formal reading and certification of the vote of the Electoral College.
