Following presidential elections, electors from each state gather to cast ballots for president and vice president. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, with 270 electoral votes required to elect the president. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. The votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors and sent to Congress and the National Archives. Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes.