Virginia’s Electoral College casts votes for Obama

4:00 p.m.

By Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine today reflected on Virginia’s racial history as he welcomed members of Virginia’s Electoral College who would formally cast the state’s 13 votes for Barack Obama.

Kaine noted that the Confederate Congress once met in the state Capitol, where electors today are meeting to help ratify the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

“Each such election is important, but today, in a special way, we celebrate the slow, but steady maturation of the noble human project begun on Jamestown Island 401 years ago,“ Kaine said.

“We rejoice in the moral power that has bent institutions, traditions, behavior and hearts ever closer to the equality principle. And, we proclaim our pride in Virginia’s role as a leader among the states.“

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12:50 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia’s presidential electors have cast their 13 votes for Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president in what was the seat of Confederate power.

    Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat and close ally of Obama, noted the poignant and historic moment of Monday’s vote at the Capitol in Richmond.

    Not only was the Capitol the venue for the Confederate Congress, it was where legislators plotted in the 1950s to thwart Supreme Court orders to desegregate Virginia’s public schools.

    But it was also the site in 1990 of the inauguration of Doug Wilder, a grandson of slaves, as the nation’s first elected black governor.

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6:30 a.m.

By Tyler Whitley
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The election of the first African-American president is drawing unusual attention to Virginia’s Electoral College when it meets at the state Capitol tomorrow.

The State Board of Elections has moved the setting to a larger venue and is showing the proceedings on closed-circuit TV. It also is warning that parking is limited around Capitol Square.

The 13 Virginia electors will meet at noon in the House of Delegates chamber to confirm the victory of Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

Because of the increased interest, the proceedings will be broadcast live in House Room D and Senate Room B in the General Assembly Building. The doors to those two rooms will open at 11 a.m.

Access to the House chamber is restricted to the electors, their guests and invited dignitaries. Tickets are required for entry.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who stumped for Obama and was a national co-chairman of his campaign, will address the proceedings.

For the first time in 44 years and only the second time since World War II, the Virginia electors will be Democrats. Obama won the state by a solid margin on Nov. 4.

Eleven of the electors, mostly longtime party activists, were elected at congressional district conventions in May. Two at-large electors were elected at a state convention.

There have been “faithless” electors in the past, but in 2000 the General Assembly passed legislation that required an elector to sign an oath declaring that he or she will vote for the nominee of the party. The electors actually cast separate votes, for the president and then the vice president.

In 1836, all of Virginia’s electors refused to vote for Richard Johnson as Martin Van Buren’s vice president. That meant Johnson did not receive a majority of the electoral votes. The Senate elected Johnson.

Virginia’s electors are:

Sophie Ann Salley of Richmond, a former archivist at the Library of Virginia. She is an at-large elector.
Michael Jon Khandelwal of Norfolk, director and teacher at The Muse Writers Center, at-large.
Chris V. Rey of Williamsburg, a law student at the College of William and Mary, 1st District.
Sandra Brandt of Virginia Beach, secretary-treasurer of Step-Up Inc., 2nd District.
Betty Squire of Richmond, retired manager for Verizon, 3rd District.
Susan Rowland of Chesapeake, chief of staff to Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., 4th District.
Marc Finney of Lawrenceville, library director at Saint Paul’s College, 5th District.
Dorothy Blackwell of Lexington, professional artist, 6th District.
J. Harold A. Boyd of Culpeper, U.S. government teacher at Chancellor High School in Spotsylvania County, 7th District.
Marian Van Landingham of Alexandria, retired member of the House of Delegates, 8th District.
Robert Childress of Rosedale, social-studies teacher at Council High School, 9th District.
Rollie Winter of Leesburg, retired information technologist, 10th District.
Janet Carver of Fairfax, vice chairwoman of the 11th District Democratic committee.