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41 days after the controversial elections on November 3, the United States Electoral College ratified Democrat Joe Biden as the next US president on Monday. Although it is a mere institutional formality, this time the procedure in the State capitols across the country rose to prominence because of President Donald Trump’s attempts to challenge the process.
California, the most populous state in the country, delivered its 55 votes electoralit’s to Biden on Monday afternoon, officially putting the former vice president above the 270 votes needed to secure the White House. Based on November results, Biden got 306 votes electoralIt is against the 232 of the Republican Trump.
Voting began at 10:00 a.m. EST (3:00 p.m. GMT) in three of the country’s 50 states (Indiana, Tennessee, and Vermont) and lasted more than nine hours, although the key moment came at 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. GMT) when it was California’s turn, which officially appointed Biden as president-elect.
Trump, who will leave office on January 20, has so far not acknowledged his defeat in the November 3 elections and has filed several lawsuits in key states alleging, without evidence, that there was electoral fraud in the vote by mail, that millions of Americans used by the pandemic.
However, his bet has been unsuccessful on all fronts, because the six states where the controversial tycoon tried to challenge the results through the courts – Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – cast their electoral votes on this day to favor of Biden, clearing any doubts.
The Democrat, meanwhile, is scheduled to give a primetime speech to ratify his victory. “If someone did not know it before, we know it now (…) The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And now we know that nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame”, It is part of the message that the president-elect will address to the nation, according to The Washington Post.
Threats in Michigan
The Electoral College session this Monday was marked by threats against the Michigan delegates, as well as by the presence of the Clintons and the African-American Stacey Abrams, architect of the Democratic victory in Georgia.
In Michigan, the state legislature operated behind closed doors due to “credible threats of violence” against Electoral College delegates, a spokeswoman for the Lower House told reporters.
Around 2:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT), the meeting began within the state parliament and the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, was in charge of opening the act.
“This was a historic election … Michigan chose a clear winner for the office of president of the United States. The people have spoken. Ours was a safe and fair election,” he said from the chamber podium.
Meanwhile, outside, around 30 supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump gathered to try to disrupt the building, but were denied entry by state police.
Finally, in silence, the Electoral College delegates deposited in favor of Biden the 16 votes that correspond to him in the Michigan Electoral College, where the Democrat won 51% of the popular vote compared to 49% for Trump, who took that key status in 2016, when she beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons’ votes
Precisely, the former candidate and her husband, former President Bill Clinton (1993-2001), today voted for Biden as part of the New York State delegates.
Electoral College delegates are normally appointed by the parties in each state and are sometimes prominent personalities like the Clintons, but other times they are activists.
“I think the Electoral College should be abolished and we would have to select our president according to who wins the popular vote, just like any other office, but since it exists, I am proud to have cast my vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Hillary Clinton declared.
In Georgia, for example, one of the 16 delegates was the African American and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who after losing the elections for the Governor of the state in 2018 founded the Fair Fight organization to fight against those who want to prevent the suffrage of members of minorities African American and Hispanic.
Abrams made a major effort to mobilize the vote in Georgia, where Biden became the first Democrat to win since 1992.
This is the system
In the US, the president is not selected by popular vote, but by an indirect system.
In fact, when they went to the polls in November, Americans elected the Electoral College delegates who represent them in the vote that takes place today in this body and whose number varies depending on the population of each state, which is why some like Pennsylvania and Florida they have greater weight.
Following the Electoral College vote, Trump’s only tactic is to convince Congress not to certify the count on Jan.6.
Federal law allows individual legislators to challenge state electoral votes, leading both the House of Representatives and the Senate to debate objections before voting on their support.
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