Doug,

>>>Don't the electors vote sometime in January??
>>
>>December 18

The results of the Dec 18th votes (held in individual states) then just be officially delivered to the House of Representatives in early January, where they will be officially declared. The House would then vote if the electoral votes were not sufficient to elect someone.

I understand that the gaps of several weeks between events in this process are due to the time it takes to ride horseback from the various states to the US Capital, and were shortened somewhat when train travel became more common.

The Inauguration in the early days was not until March.