CARLSBAD, Calif. — President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20 but first, over 50 people from California will have to cast electoral votes to make it official.
After the dust settles from the 2020 Presidential election, there’s one last step to make Joe Biden’s win official: casting electoral votes. California will send 55 electors to Sacramento on December 14 and one them is 22-year old political consultant Kevin Sabellico from Carlsbad.
“Now we know, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris received 306 electoral votes - the exact same amount of electoral votes that Donald Trump received in 2016. Now we just have to put our rubber stamp on it and make it official,” Sabellico said.
Democrats allow their Congressional members to choose electors. Sabellico said after working with Congressman Mike Levin’s campaign, he asked him last year if he could be one of California’s electors. Now he’s preparing to cast his vote.
“I think it would be a real honor to serve in this constitutional role and fulfill my solemn duty to make Joe Biden and Kamala Harris President and Vice President. I’m a nerd, I love this stuff!” Sabellico said.
The 2020 Presidential election will be one for the history books: millions of people voting by mail, accusations of voter fraud, and multiple state recounts. But Kamala Harris elected as the first woman and person of color Vice President, holds a special meaning for another California elector and San Diego Attorney Janice Brown.
“I see all these little Black girls with little t-shirts that say, 'the Vice President looks like me' and I think, 'Oh my goodness.' What has that changed for their world? How that has changed, how Kamala has changed their world,” Brown said.
Brown said she’s met Biden and has worked with Harris before. She said she’s honored to cast a vote for them and now she hopes her vote will help the country heal.
“I’m reading Obama’s new book and it makes me remember when he said, 'We’re not red America or blue America. We are the United States of America' and I think we’ve forgotten that,” Brown said.
In California, electors have to cast their votes in person, so they will be taking the necessary precautions to travel to safely to Sacramento next month.