LIVE from Olympia: Washington’s electors meet to vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden

Good after­noon from Olympia! Eve and I are here at the Wash­ing­ton State Capi­tol Cam­pus to wit­ness one of many Elec­toral Col­lege meet­ings tak­ing place across the Unit­ed States. Twelve indi­vid­u­als, cho­sen by the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, are here to cast votes for pres­i­dent and vice pres­i­dent on behalf of the peo­ple of the State of Wash­ing­ton, who chose Barack Oba­ma and Joe Biden for those posi­tions in the just con­clud­ed pres­i­den­tial election.

The meet­ing will be held in the State Recep­tion Room of the Leg­isla­tive Build­ing. We have just arrived and will be pro­vid­ing live updates through­out the next hour.

UPDATE, 12:02 PM: The meet­ing has been called to order by Sec­re­tary of State Sam Reed. All of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tors are here, so none of the alter­nates will be seat­ed. The elec­tors (and again, there are a total of twelve) are:

• 1st Dis­trict: Gri­fynn Clay of Snohomish;
• 2nd Dis­trict: Dave Gos­sett of Mount­lake Terrace;
• 3rd Dis­trict: Kath­leen Lawrence of Vancouver;
• 4th Dis­trict: George Fear­ing of Kennewick;
• 5th Dis­trict: Rick Lloyd of Spokane Valley;
• 6th Dis­trict: Gail Kirk of Tacoma;
• 7th Dis­trict: Maria Ehsan of Seattle;
• 8th Dis­trict: Eliz­a­beth Sati­acum of Olympia;
• 9th Dis­trict: Geor­gia Spencer of Seattle;
• 10th Dis­trict: Har­vey Brooks of Uni­ver­si­ty Place;
• At Large: Heather Fralick
• At Large: Alec Stephens

UPDATE, 12:05 PM: Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire has just spo­ken, pay­ing trib­ute to Reed for many years of ser­vice on behalf of the peo­ple of the State of Wash­ing­ton. Both Gre­goire and Reed are leav­ing office in Jan­u­ary, end­ing decades of pub­lic ser­vice. They will be suc­ceed­ed by Jay Inslee and Kim Wyman, respectively.

UPDATE, 12:08 PM: The elec­toral col­lege vot­ers have elect­ed at-large elec­tor Heather Fral­ick as the chair for the meeting.

UPDATE, 12:12 PM: Time to vote for pres­i­dent! Each elec­tor is sign­ing their names to sev­er­al sheets of paper, for records of today’s pro­ceed­ings will be sent to Con­gress, to the Nation­al Archives, and kept by our very own Sec­re­tary of State.

UPDATE, 12:20 PM: Wash­ing­ton’s twelve elec­toral votes offi­cial­ly go to Barack Oba­ma for the office of Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of America!!

UPDATE, 12:23 PM: Vot­ing for vice pres­i­dent has begun.

UPDATE, 12:28 PM: Wash­ing­ton’s twelve elec­toral votes offi­cial­ly go to Joe Biden for the office of Vice Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States of America!

UPDATE, 12:32 PM: We are almost done. The elec­tors just have to agree to adopt the min­utes and then adjourn. Each elec­tor will pose for a pho­to­graph with Wash­ing­ton Sec­re­tary of State Sam Reed.

UPDATE, 12:42 PM: Sev­er­al of the elec­tors are deliv­er­ing brief remarks putting Barack Oba­ma’s pres­i­den­cy in his­toric perspective.

UPDATE, 12:44 PM: The meet­ing is adjourned. Elec­tors and alter­nates will now pose for photos.