After the college cast three electoral votes for Vice President Kamala Harris and one for President-elect Donald Trump, electors Joel Stetkis, left, and Betty Johnson sign multiple copies of the certification of the vote Tuesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The electoral college convened in all 50 states Tuesday to elect Donald Trump to be the 47th president of the United States over Vice President Kamala Harris by a vote of 312 to 226.

The gatherings unfolded uneventfully, unlike four years ago, when alternate electors for Trump convened in seven states that he had lost and where governors had certified the results for Joe Biden.

Although many of the 2020 alternate electors said they met only to preserve Republican legal options as they fought the results in court, some Trump allies used their votes to try to persuade Congress to decide the election for him during the joint session on Jan. 6, 2021. That effort became the focus of congressional hearings as well as criminal cases in which electors in four states were accused of an attempted conspiracy to overturn Biden’s victory.

Although Trump won the electoral college comfortably this time, and he defeated Harris in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes, his share of the popular vote when third-party candidate totals are included falls slightly below a majority, at 49.9 percent, according to data compiled by the Associated Press.

The electoral college is a unique feature of American democracy, which does not choose its president with a direct popular vote. Instead, candidates for president or their parties choose electors – who are activated to convene only if their candidate wins their state – and voters are casting ballots for those electors. In two states, Maine and Nebraska, some electoral votes are awarded by congressional district rather than according to statewide results.

Under federal law, the states were required this year to certify their results by Dec. 11, determining which candidate’s electors would convene on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday of December.

Next, electors must transmit certificates of their votes to Washington for the final step in determining the outcome of the election: the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.

States and the federal government alike spent months planning for heightened security around the convening of the electors and the joint session, given the protests surrounding Biden’s victory four years ago in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Several states reported this week that some of the preparations have proved unnecessary with Trump’s win, which Harris did not contest.

“To be honest, I forgot about it,” said Gabriel Sterling, a senior aide to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “That’s how boring and uneventful it’s going to be.”

In Arizona, 11 Republican electors gathered at an undisclosed location to fulfill their duties, citing security concerns, but live-streamed the event for the public to watch.

With the U.S. and Arizona flags as a backdrop, the electors took their oath and silently signed the paperwork. Nearby music pulsed during the event, and the electors clapped after they finished their obligations.

The lack of drama prompted commentary from Democrats, many of whom have accused Republicans of accepting the results this year only because Trump won.

“Funny how when real electors meet, they do so in public. With the press,” Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, wrote on X.

Electors in at least three states this year – Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico – were also Trump electors in 2020 and convened to vote that year despite Trump’s loss in their states.

One of those electors in Wisconsin, Hank Choate, carried a button into the state House chamber Tuesday with the phrase “2020 alternate elector” on it, according to a photo posted to X.

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez in Phoenix and Patrick Marley in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.