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PHOENIX (BLOOMBERG) – Arizona and Wisconsin formalized Democrat Joe Biden’s victories in those states on Monday (Nov. 30), dealing the final blow to President Donald Trump’s campaign to reverse his defeat.
Biden defeated Trump by 10,457 votes in Arizona, according to official results certified by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in Phoenix.
The process was overseen by Governor Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.
The certification confirms that Biden won the state and triggers the appointment of voters who will cast all 11 Arizona Electoral College votes for Biden when they meet on Dec. 14, unless a court intervenes.
Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Ann Jacobs also officially confirmed the election result Monday and sent it to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to designate voters for the state’s 10 electoral votes.
Jacobs’ action also starts a five-day period for Trump to appeal the result of a recount.
The Trump campaign requested and paid US $ 3 million (S $ 4 million) for a tally of two heavily Democratic counties that confirmed Biden’s victory in the state and even increased his margin of victory to more than 20,000 votes over Trump.
The Trump campaign attacked absentee voting practices when he called for the recount in the two counties, but election officials in the state have repeatedly defended the integrity of the election.
Arizona and Wisconsin are the last contested states to make the results of their presidential elections official.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada certified Biden’s victories last week, and Georgia made their victory official on November 20.
It is yet another loss in the efforts of Trump and his allies to reverse their defeat by challenging the election results in court and seeking to stop certification in some states, despite failing to present evidence.
Those tactics have met with numerous defeats in court.
“This election was conducted with transparency, accuracy, and fairness in accordance with Arizona election laws and procedures, despite numerous unsubstantiated claims to the contrary,” Hobbs said before certifying the results there.
The state also certified Democrat Mark Kelly’s victory over Republican Sen. Martha McSally. Kelly will be sworn in at noon on Wednesday, according to a top Democratic aide.
At the same time the Arizona results were released, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was participating in a meeting Monday at a Phoenix hotel with Republican lawmakers to discuss “election irregularities and fraud.”
Giuliani was part of a similar meeting last week in Pennsylvania in which Trump called to complain without evidence that the election was fraudulent.
Biden’s victory in Arizona does not qualify for an automatic recount because the margin of victory is greater than the lesser of 200 votes or 1/10 of 1 percent of the difference between the two candidates.
There is no provision for a losing candidate to request a recount, according to the secretary of state’s office. Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward has said the party intends to challenge the election results once the count is complete.
The certification came after a Maricopa County judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Arizona Republican Party on Nov.19 that sought to force the most populous county in the state to complete a manual recount of some ballots, despite having no evidence of fraud. election or software bugs. . Democrats had accused the state Republican Party of trying to get the county to miss the state’s certification deadline.
So far, Trump has refused to budge, but acknowledged during an interview Sunday on Fox News that the fight to reverse his re-election defeat “probably” will not reach the US Supreme Court, which had been the goal of his legal team.
The president and his attorneys have also been calling for Republican-controlled legislatures in changing states to ignore Biden’s popular vote victories and name competing Trump voter lists. But several legislative leaders have said that will not happen, and legal experts say state legislatures cannot override the appointment of Biden’s electors after vote certifications.
“Arizona’s certification of FALSE results is unethical and knowingly participates in the corruption that has disenfranchised AZ voters,” Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, who participated in the Phoenix meeting, said on Twitter. with Giuliani.
The United States General Services Administration has recognized Biden as the seeming winner and the president asked his agencies to cooperate. That designation triggered a formal transition process, which gave the president-elect and his team access to agency officials, information books and other government resources, including some $ 6 million in funding.
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