The mood wasn’t as festive as it had been the previous three times the North Carolina delegation to the Electoral College met, but Monday 15 Republicans came to the House chamber of the Old Capitol to cast their ballots for Mitt Romney as president of the United States and Paul Ryan as vice president.

The reason: This time, North Carolina voters sided with the loser in the presidential election. In 2000 and 2004, North Carolina voted with the eventual national winner, Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In 2008, North Carolina likewise voted for the national winners, Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The meeting was a bittersweet one for the Republicans gathered in Raleigh, as Robert Levy of Southern Pines, who presided over the Electoral College balloting, commented on following Monday’s meeting.

“It is bittersweet, but what we’re really doing here is we’re affirming that we are one nation,” Levy said. “And we’re affirming our rule in a democracy.

“The most important thing the United States does is every four years – or sometimes every eight years — we change presidents, we change officials of government, and we do that peacefully, and we do that rather proudly,” Levy said. “And we’ve done that for over two centuries. That’s the important thing — that we’re participating in the peaceful transition of power. Just because my candidate didn’t win this time, I’m not going to go home and cry about it. I’m going to do better next time because I have faith in our electoral system, and in our democracy.”

Levy continued, “That is just as important if you’re a winner. It’s just as important if you don’t win.”

Nationally, the Democratic ticket of Obama and Biden won with 332 electoral votes, compared to the GOP ticket of Romney and Ryan, with 206 electoral votes.

North Carolina’s secretary of state, Elaine Marshall, has the statutory duty of convening the Electoral College. She reminded the electors and guests that this year’s gathering was the 56th Electoral College and that North Carolina did not participate in the first one, since the state did not ratify the U.S. Constitution until after the Bill of Rights was adopted and sent to the states for ratification.

Ceremonial portions of the meeting included the presentation of colors by the N.C. National Guard, the singing of the National Anthem by Annette Ethridge, and the Pledge of Allegiance by leaders of the North Carolina 4-H clubs.

Dumas Harshaw Jr., pastor of First Baptist Church in Raleigh, asked for a moment of silence for the victims and families of the Newtown, Conn., tragedy before delivering the invocation.

In addition to Levy, the electors were Felice Pete of Raleigh, Garry Terry of Ahoskie, James Proctor of Whitakers, Ashley Woolard of Washington, Michael Esser of Chapel Hill, Charles Barrett of Advance, David Ruden of High Point, Barbara Hines of Elizabethtown, Don Abernathy of Albemarle, Mary Jo Shepherd of Charlotte, William Shillito of Newton, Dodie Allen of Bryson City, Paul Penney of Concord, and Art Pope of Raleigh (a board member of the John Locke Foundation).

Barry Smith is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.