The Road to the Inauguration of Joe Biden – VG

On Saturday it became clear: Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election. She thus becomes the next 46th president of the United States, and Kamala Harris becomes the first female vice president in American history.

With at least 279 voters, Biden wins the election against outgoing President Donald Trump.

It is true that Trump has yet to acknowledge defeat and has made several allegations of election fraud. He has also said that the election “is far from over”, and the Trump campaign has brought a series of lawsuits against various states.

Read also: Uncertainty in Arizona four days after Fox gave Biden the win

To become president, you must have a majority in the electoral college with at least 270 voters.

Americans who cast their votes in elections do not directly elect the president. Technically, Americans actually vote more than 538 voters representing various states, such as Pennsylvania, which was instrumental in Biden’s victory with his 20 voters.

Once the counting of all the votes is completed, it is these voters who direct vote on who becomes president.

The process from Election Day until the United States has a new president takes more than two months and has several legal stops along the way.

See the full schedule in the election overview.

Votes are still counted, and the media have different practices for when they consider that a state is decided. VG figures are provided by DPA, as a user CNN as main source:

The time after Election Day in the United States

• US Election Day falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year it was November 3. Voting begins across the country on Election Day. In some states, like Florida, the mail-in vote counting begins before Election Day, while others, like Pennsylvania, have to wait until Election Day to count them as well.

• During this period the votes received are counted and recorded. For mail-in ballots to pass, they had to be sealed in every state by midnight on November 3. In most cases, mail-in ballots should have arrived a day or two after Election Day.
• In Washington state, however, they receive mail-in ballots until November 23, which is the day before the state ratifies the election result.
• In the auspicious states of Pennsylvania, mail-in votes can run through November 6. In the auspicious states of Minnesota and Nevada, they receive votes by mail until November 10, and in Ohio the border is November 13.

• Each state ratifies the results of the elections. It happens in a slightly different way in different states. The deadline for when a state should have submitted its result can be postponed if the margins between candidates are too small.

• This is the time frame for states to have counted the votes, resolved disputes over the outcome, and determined the winner of the state electoral votes.

• Voters cast their votes in the state they represent. It will take place on the first Monday after the first Wednesday in December, which this year falls on December 14.
• Washington DC and 33 states have laws that say voters must vote based on who won the state election. The laws also provide a basis for imposing fines on voters who cannot vote for the winner, but as they wish.
• After the vote, six ballots will be sent to Washington, including the president of the Senate, who is the current vice president.

• The ballots with the voters’ votes have nine days to reach Congress in Washington and the officials who will have them.

• The new Congress, which consists of both houses of the Senate and the House of Representatives, is sworn in. This is the official opening of the 117th Congress of the United States.
• Democrats are likely to retain a majority in the House of Representatives, while Republicans are likely to retain a majority in the Senate. However, it has yet to be decided. At least two of the 100 Senate seats will go to the polls in January, which means the Senate may at least be divided.

• Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate hold a joint meeting, where the electoral votes are read and counted in alphabetical order. If one of the candidates, Biden or Trump, has received 270 or more votes, the President of the Senate will announce the result.
• If neither of the two presidential candidates has received at least 270 votes, the House of Representatives can decide the election. Then it is the majority that decides who becomes president. This is unlikely to happen in 2021, because Joe Biden had already secured 279 voters on Saturday, November 8.

• This is the opening day. The outgoing president has a habit of welcoming the incoming president into the White House prior to the inauguration ceremony, as Barack Obama did before Donald Trump took office.
• An inauguration ceremony will then be held where the incoming president will take office. It is common for all former presidents who are still alive to attend this ceremony.
• If the incoming President dies between Election Day and Inauguration Day, the incoming Vice President will be sworn in and become the next President of the United States.

That’s how it was when Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2016.

Sources: CNN Y The Guardian