I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, December 14th.

Members of the Electoral College in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia are convening to choose the next president of the

United States. After President Trump's 9-0-0 flameout at the Supreme Court on Friday night,

we can now finally say with confidence that the electors will give President Trump only the

232 electoral votes he won at the polls, and President-elect Joe Biden, his 306.

And after the first minus 84-degree refrigerator trucks rolled out this weekend, the first

coronavirus vaccine given in the United States outside of a clinical trial was administered here in New York City this morning.

The first shots in New Jersey are expected tomorrow.

The electoral college vote is usually without drama, more of a formality confirming the will of the voters than a real election of any kind.

But we know this year is different in at least one of the states that Joe Biden won decisively, after Trump won it in

2016, Michigan, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has concerned for people's physical safety today.

The legislature won't be in session today, and so the Capitol Commission, because of

intel that they had, decided to close the Capitol for the purposes of our Electoral College

vote today. Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Morning Edition today. Of course, she herself was the target of a

kidnapping plot that people have been arrested by

the FBI and accused of. We will see what happens today, there, and elsewhere. For the record,

even after today's electoral college vote, the election isn't official official, and President Trump

and some Republicans are expected to try at the one

remaining juncture to overturn the election results again. That's when Congress has to vote

to accept or reject the state electors on January the 6th, but both houses would have to agree

to nullify there, and Trump certainly does not have the

math to prevail in the Democratic House. With me now, Anita Kumar, a Politico White House correspondent,

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