Meet the Minnesotans who officially elected Barack Obama as President

It's hard for many to understand, but Minnesotans who voted for Barack Obama this year were actually voting for ten electors.

Those electors gathered at the state capitol Monday to make Minnesota's results official.

"These electors today are representative of all the ordinary Minnesotans who came to the polls on November 4th," said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Electors in every state -- 538 in all -- gathered Monday to cast their votes in the presidential election. In states that voted for Obama, all the electors voted for Obama and Joe Biden. In states that voted for John McCain, all the electors voted for McCain and Sarah Palin.

Minnesota's ten electors were picked by the state's DFL party before the election.

"So there was on question today how Minnesota's ten electors would vote," says the University of Minnesota's Kathryn Pearson.

Minnesota Republicans also picked electors in case McCain won Minnesota.

However, the electors don't always follow their state's wishes. When Minnesota voted for John Kerry in 2004, one elector voted for John Edwards. Since the ballots are anonymous and no one fessed up, it's assumed that was simply a mistake.

There were no mistakes this year.

"I'm so excited," said 2008 elector Joan Wittman. "I just think this is the biggest thrill of my adult life."

Wittman admits to knowing little about the electoral college process prior to this year. She says she's "getting up there" in age and thought this would be a good time to seek the party's nomination.

Following Monday's assembly, Wittman introduced her grandson to fellow elector Matt Little, a local civil rights leader who was proud to represent Minnesota by voting for the country's first African-American president.

"Never thought I'd see the day," Little said. "I'm so happy. I'm on cloud nine."

When electors vote against their state's wishes, they're known as faithless electors. Pearson says this has only happened six times in the last ten presidential elections. Some states have laws preventing this, but not Minnesota.

By Joe Fryer, KARE 11 News Read Joe's Blog

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