Narender G. Reddy signing his ballot. (Photo: Courtesy, Narender G. Reddy)

Dec. 13 was the day Georgia Electoral College members met and cast their votes as Presidential Electors. Georgia has 15 electoral college votes, one for each Congressional district and 2 U.S. Senate seats.

Elected earlier, I was proud and honored to be a member of this elite and most trusted group of Georgia Republican Party.

The day started at a breakfast meeting of all the electoral college members at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Atlanta. The Georgia GOP Chairman, Alec Poitevint, in his welcome address spoke about each Presidential elector’s contributions to the party and thanked them for their services. He fondly recalled my earlier speech delivered at the State Republican Convention on May 15 and acknowledged my contributions to the State Republican Party and specially towards the massive victory for President Bush in Georgia. All the electors were given an opportunity to speak. I spoke about the honor bestowed on this immigrant from India and acknowledged it as an honor to our Indian-American community. I recalled about my studying U.S. Constitutional Laws while I was in Law School (Osmania University, Hyderabad) in India and learned about electoral college but never dreamed that one day I would be part of it.

Later, we all went in a special bus to the State Capitol where we were received by Governor Sonny Perdue and seated in the chambers of House of Representatives.

I was delighted to be seated in the front row seat of this legislative chambers. The meeting started on time at 11.30 a.m. Each of us signed our ballots separately for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the glare of TV cameras and Press. The event was later broadcast as part of the local TV news. In the evening, all the Presidential electors were invited by Governor Perdue for a dinner reception at the Governor’s mansion. Though this was not my first dinner at the Governor’s mansion, I did enjoy this occasion as the mansion was decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments and was just beautiful.

–– Narender G. Reddy
Atlanta, GA.