Now It's Official

THE ELECTION Now It's Official

One day this week, an old and vestigial political ceremony took place: the U.S. Electoral College gathered in the 48 state capitals and formally chose the nation's next President and Vice President. To nobody's surprise, they voted overwhelmingly (442 to 89) for Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

There is still another ceremonial step before the outcome of the Nov. 4 election can be constitutionally certified. From the state capitals, the electoral votes will be sent to Washington. There, on Jan. 6, a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives will total them up, once & for all.

On the eve of the Electoral College session, the states officially completed the count of the popular vote last November: P:62,042,777 ballots were cast. Of these, 494,916 were voided, leaving 61,547,861 as the count for the record books, the largest ever in U.S. election history. P:To the Republicans went 55.1% of the vote; the Democrats got 44.4% and a negligible .5% went to the minor parties. The Republican gain over 1948 was 10%; the Democrats' loss was 5.1%. In 1948, minor parties took 5.4% of the vote. P:63% of the adult population voted. This represented a marked upswing from the 52% who went to the polls in 1948. But it was still well below the 78.4% of all potential votes cast in 1880.

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