The College

Rumpled Henry Wallace took his place at the Speaker's stand, tapped the gavel solemnly. The white clock in the House chamber stood at 1:01 p.m.; the U.S. Congress was assembled in joint session. But what Congress had to do was of no importance to anyone. It was going to count the Electoral College ballots for President and Vice President of the U.S.

Two page boys were the most impressed participants in the entire assembly. Faces aglow with soap and solemnity, they had brought up two rich brown, mahogany boxes containing the ballots. A bipartisan committee from both houses tallied the vote.

There was a ripple of laughter when Rhode Island's usually glib Senator Theodore Francis Green got his history mixed, gave Colorado's six ballots mistakenly to Roosevelt & Truman instead of to Dewey & Bricker. But with that little mixup over, the scene went on sedately to Wallace's final formal announcement of a fact already known to the entire world. Now at last it was official: Roosevelt & Truman had received 432 electoral votes, Dewey & Bricker 99.

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