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The US Electoral College has come together to formally confirm the victory of Democrat Joe Biden as the next US President and effectively end President Donald Trump’s risky attempt to nullify the election results.
Electoral College members from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona – battle states won by Biden but unsuccessfully challenged in court by Trump – cast all state electoral votes for the former vice president.
Electoral College voting, traditionally a formality, has become enormously important due to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in the November poll.
Results for weeks have shown that Biden won 306 votes in the Electoral College, surpassing the 270 needed to win, after four tumultuous years under Trump.
Mr. Biden and his running mate KamalaHarris will take office on January 20.
There was almost no chance that the vote would deny Biden’s victory and, with Trump’s legal campaign to reverse the results failing, the president’s hopes of holding onto power will be based on a special meeting of the United States Congress on the 6th. January where the odds are against you. they are as good as they are unsurpassed.
California, the most populous state in the US, is expected to formally pressure Biden on the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win overall after its constituents meet at 5 p.m. ET (10 p.m. ET). Ireland time).
The 78-year-old Biden is due to deliver a speech at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, asking Americans to turn the page after the Electoral College vote.
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“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago,” he is expected to say, according to excerpts released by his transition team.
“And now we know that nothing, not even a pandemic, or an abuse of power, can put out that flame.”
Once in office, Biden is faced with the challenging task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, reviving the United States economy, and rebuilding relations worn out with America’s allies abroad by “America First” policies. of Trump.
In Arizona, at the start of the voters’ meeting there, the state’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, said that Trump’s fraud allegations had “led to threats of violence against me, my office, and those in this office today. room”. echoing similar reports of threats and intimidation in other states.
“While there will be those who are upset that their candidate did not win, it is patently un-American and unacceptable that today’s event is anything less than an honored tradition celebrated with pride and celebration,” said Ms. Hobbs.
Under a complicated system dating back to the 1780s, a candidate becomes president of the United States.Not by winning a majority of the popular vote, but through the Electoral College system, which allocates electoral votes to the 50s. states and the District of Columbia largely based on the size of its population.
United States Election: What is the Electoral College?
Voters are typically loyal to the parties representing the winning candidate in their state, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate some of their Electoral College votes based on the candidate who won in each of the US Congressional districts. state.
While there are sometimes a handful of “rogue” voters who vote for someone who is not the popular vote winner for their state, the vast majority confirm the results.
Trump said late last month that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Biden, but has since forged ahead with his unprecedented campaign to reverse his defeat, unsuccessfully filing numerous lawsuits challenging the state’s vote count.
Today he repeated a series of unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
“Swinging states that have encountered MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete and correct without committing a severely punishable offense,” he wrote on Twitter.
Swing States that have encountered MASS VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete and correct without committing a severely punishable offense. Everyone knows that dead, minors, illegal immigrants, false signatures, prisoners, …
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2020
A group of Trump supporters called on Facebook for all-day protests in front of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, one of the hardest-fighting states where Trump lost.
However, only a few had gathered by early afternoon, including 66-year-old Bob Ray, a retired construction worker. He was holding a sign that read “order a forensic audit,” “save America,” and “stop communism.”
Trump has asked Republican state lawmakers to appoint their own constituents, essentially ignoring the will of the voters. State politicians have largely dismissed the idea.
“I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to win more than I did,” Lee Chatfield, Republican Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, said in a statement. “But I also love our republic. I can’t imagine risking our norms, traditions, and institutions to pass a resolution that retroactively changes Trump’s constituents.”
Once the Electoral College vote is complete, Trump’s only remaining tactic would be to persuade Congress not to certify the count on January 6.
Any attempt to block a state’s results, and thus change the overall count for the United States, must gain majority approval from both houses of Congress that day.
Democrats control the House of Representatives, while enough Republicans in the Senate have acknowledged Biden’s victory to guarantee that any challenge is likely to fail.
In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes.
The formal vote gained special attention when some Democratic activists called on voters to “go rogue” against Trump.
In the end, seven voters broke ranks, an unusually high number, but still too few to influence the outcome.
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