With President Donald Trump and supporters continuing to question President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, attention is turning to the state’s 20 electors who have been picked to cast the electoral votes for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Each state gets electors equivalent to the number of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Each state has at least three electors.

In Pennsylvania, each party’s nominee chooses his Electoral College electors, and the winning candidate’s party submits its list to Gov. Tom Wolf to be certified.

The electors will cast their votes for president at high noon Monday at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, and the result will then be sent to Congress by Dec. 23.

With Vice President Mike Pence as president of the Senate presiding, the new Congress will meet on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes. If there are any objections in any state, they must be made concurrently by a senator and a member of the House of Representatives.

The two houses of Congress would recess and separately debate to accept or reject the objections. A majority of members from each house must agree to exclude an electoral vote.

We have come to hear of what is called “faithless electors” - those who are pledged to one or the other candidate but who vote for someone else. It’s a rarity among Pennsylvania electors, although there is nothing to compel them to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged.

Since each state has its own election laws, some states penalize a “faithless elector.” In Oklahoma, for example, if one of the electors does not vote for Donald Trump, who carried the state, his or her action would trigger an automatic resignation and replacement by someone who would vote for Trump.

“Faithless electors” are rare, because the parties handpick electors, who are generally die-hard party faithful.

Despite this, four years ago, there was a record number of “faithless electors” - seven. Five of them were to cast ballots for Democrat Hillary Clinton and two were to have cast ballots for Trump but didn’t. Before 2016, there was never more than one “faithless elector” in a presidential election since 1948. No “faithless elector” has ever changed the outcome of an election.

The 20 Pennsylvania Democrats chosen to be electors do not include anyone from the five-county Times News area. There are two from Lackawanna County - Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and Virginia McGregor of Lackawanna County who is deputy finance chair for the Democratic National Committee.

The others (in alphabetical order) are Nina Ahmad of Philadelphia who was an unsuccessful candidate for state auditor general this year; Montgomery County Commissioner Chair Val Arkoosh, Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cindy Bass, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale of Dauphin County, Laborer International Union Business Manager Ryan Boyer of Delaware County. Mid-Atlantic director of Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ Daisy Cruz of Philadelphia, Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper, Lancaster County Councilwoman Janet Diaz.

Also, Moberg Medical board member Charles Hadley of Philadelphia, House Democratic Whip Jordan Harris of Philadelphia, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia, Delaware County Board of Elections Chair Gerald Lawrence, Attorney Clifford Levine of Allegheny County, state Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Nancy Mills of Allegheny County, Chester County Commissioner Marian Moskowitz, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro of Montgomery County, state Sen. Sharif Street of Philadelphia, and former state Sen. Connie Williams of Delaware County.

If Trump had prevailed in Pennsylvania, GOP electors would have included the owner of Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in Coplay, Lehigh County Bill Bachenberg, former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton, Pennsylvania Great Frontier PAC board member Bernadette Comfort of Lehigh County, state GOP Hispanic Advisory Council Chair Josephine Ferro of Monroe County, former Pennsylvania Trump campaign director Chuck Coccodrilli of Lackawanna County, and Republican state party secretary Lance Stangeof Lackawanna County.

The U.S. Constitution prohibits electors from being members of Congress or holding federal office. The 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, prevents any elected officeholders who have rebelled against the U.S. from serving as electors.

If you’re wondering whether electors are paid, the answer is “yes” - $3 a day and mileage traveling from home to and from Harrisburg.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com