Barack Obama was today officially declared winner of November 6 US presidential elections. A joint session of the Congress tallied and certified votes of the electoral colleges.
This was the formal culmination of the presidential election process.
While incumbent Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden received 332 Electoral College votes, Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan received 206 votes.
Member of the electoral colleges met in their respective States in December and voted for their candidates and sent the results to the US Congress.
Since this was just a formality, not many Congressmen were present.
In fact there were more people in the gallery than members of the Congress during the 30-minute process. Vice-President Biden presided over the joint session.
According to Politico, the ballots arrived in locked wooden boxes, held together with aged leather straps, that were proceeded in by student pages.
More From This Section
Staff used ceremonial letter openers to excise each form from its envelope, it said.
The numbers were read by Senators Chuck Schumer and Lamar Alexander; and Congressmen Candice Miller and Kevin Brady.
Biden read out the final results and declared that his announcement "shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice-President of the United States, beginning from January 20, 2013," The Hill reported.