Watson, the state’s chief electoral officer, described the electoral college as “a shining instance of the brilliance of Our Founding Fathers”. As Mississippi joined other states and District of Columbia Monday in meeting to consolidate the results of the Nov. 3, general election in which Trump was defeated by former Vice President Joe Biden, Watson also referred to it as “a shining example of how brilliant our founding fathers.” Watson and Reeves were both present Monday as voters voted in the Capitol committee room, which is known for its statue of Theodore Bilbo (an ex-governor and one of the most prominent segregationists in the state). Each state receives the number of electoral vote equal to the two United States senators plus their U.S. House member. Like most states, Mississippi’s electoral votes go to the winner of the popular vote. Reeves and Watson both praised the electoral college as a way to ensure that smaller states, such as Mississippi, have more say in the election. The electoral college has been criticized by some as being counter-intuitive to democracy. In recent years, the presidential candidate who won most popular votes has not won. The Democrat won the popular vote in seven out of eight recent elections, while the Republican won the electoral colleges and the presidency in two. Biden beat Trump this year by more than seven millions votes. However, Biden was on Monday poise to win the same number (306) of electoral votes as Trump in 2016, when he lost by nearly three million to Hillary Clinton. Reeves stated that “for those individuals in this county who want the electoral college to be changed because they believe it will help them, I argue… they fundamentally miss the principle we live within a republic, not a true democracy, because our founding fathers recognized not only the importance of the big states but also the small ones.” Reeves stated that Mississippi voters would be “disenfranchised” if the electoral college was eliminated. Watson and Reeves both supported a lawsuit filed by Lynn Fitch, the state attorney general. This lawsuit sought to toss out millions of ballots from four key swing states to help Trump win the election. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit. Reeves stated that the election was free and fair in Mississippi. He did not believe that any last-minute attempts to alter voting methods would have been allowed. Reeves and Watson expressed dissatisfaction with the judiciary for making election changes to address the COVID-19 pandemic which violated the Constitution. They did not offer any examples of how they would have affected the results in the swing states that gave Biden the election. The Mississippi vote of the electors, all white males, was uneventful. Since Trump’s victory, the six electors chosen by the state Republican Party were John Dane III (Frank Bordeaux), John Dane III (Frank Lee), Terry Reeves and E. Bruce Martin. Bordeaux is the new chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. Lee is one Reeves’ most significant individual political contributors. Terry Reeves is Terry’s father. According to the governor, it is a testimony to the country that his father could become a presidential candidate. He was one of eleven children who grew up in a Lincoln County two-bedroom house.