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(Reuters) – Voters will gather in state capitals across the country on Monday to formally vote for Joe Biden as the next U.S. president, ending President Donald Trump’s frenzied but failed attempt to reverse his election defeat. November 3.
State-by-state voting, traditionally an afterthought, has assumed enormous importance this year in light of Trump’s unprecedented assault on the nation’s democratic process. Pushing forward false claims of widespread fraud, Trump has pressured state officials to dismiss the election results and declare him the winner.
In the United States, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote, but through an electoral college system, which allocates electoral votes to all 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on its population. (Here’s a graphic on how the Electoral College works: https://tmsnrt.rs/3lUKcgv)
The election results show that Biden, the former Democratic vice president, won 306 of the 538 electoral votes available, exceeding the 270 needed. Trump, a Republican, got 232.
In capitals like Lansing, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and voters in Atlanta, Georgia, generally loyal to the party, will meet to formally cast those votes.
While there are sometimes a handful of “rogue” voters who vote for someone other than the winner of the popular vote for their state, the vast majority approve of their state’s results, and officials expect nothing different on Monday.
Trump has asked Republican state legislators to appoint their own constituents, essentially ignoring the will of the voters. State lawmakers have largely dismissed the idea.
The votes cast Monday will go to Congress to be officially counted on January 6, the final stage of the complex US electoral process.
Trump said late last month that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes 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. On Friday, the United States Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Texas that sought to invalidate the results in four states that Biden won.
Once the Electoral College vote is complete, Trump’s only remaining tactic would be to convince Congress not to certify the count on January 6. Federal law allows individual legislators to challenge the electoral votes of the states, leading both the House of Representatives and the Senate to debate objections before voting on whether they should be upheld.
Mo Brooks, a conservative Republican congressman, has vowed to file challenges when Congress reviews the vote next month, though both houses will almost certainly reject his effort. Democrats control the House, while several moderate Republicans in the Senate have already publicly accepted Biden’s victory.
‘LAND MINES’
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.
Even if Monday’s vote goes smoothly, Trump’s efforts, such as encouraging state legislatures to name their own sets of “dueling” voters, have exposed potential flaws in the system, said Robert Alexander, a professor at the University. from Northern Ohio who has written a book. about the Electoral College.
“There are a lot of landmines in the Electoral College, and this election really revealed a lot of them,” he said.
While electoral votes typically involve some pomp and circumstance, most of this year’s events will shrink significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In Michigan, for example, all 16 voters are allowed to bring only one guest; Arizona has shifted its ceremony from the capitol building to an unassuming government facility and narrowed the guest list. At least one state, Nevada, intends to cast its electoral vote completely virtually.
The voter election process varies by state. In some, state parties elect voters at state or local conventions, while in others, party leadership chooses the list. In Pennsylvania, the presidential candidates themselves choose their constituents, while in California, the Democratic candidates for Congress select them.
Some voters, like Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, are well-known political figures. But most are longtime state party devotees, like Bonnie Lauria, a retired General Motors worker in West Branch, Michigan.
“I held most of the positions, from the local level to the state central,” said the 79-year-old. “This is one that I haven’t had the privilege of being a part of. I’m glad it’s my turn.”
Another Michigan Democratic elector, Blake Mazurek, a 52-year-old history professor, said he hopes the vote will send a message that the democratic system continues to function despite Trump’s rhetoric.
“I hope that many in America have a sense of security that our country is not completely broken,” he said.
(Report by Joseph Ax; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Alistair Bell)
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