US Electoral College Close to Formally Confirming Joe Biden’s Win

US President-elect Joe Biden announces nominees and appointees to serve on his health and coronavirus response teams during a press conference at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, 8 December 2020. (Reuters)

LANSING, Michigan – U.S. presidential voters formally voted for Democrat Joe Biden on Monday despite pressure from President Donald Trump on several states to declare him the winner, nearly ending his campaign to overturn the election results of the November 3. .

Members of the Electoral College in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – all undecided states in which Trump’s allies unsuccessfully challenged Biden’s victories in court – cast state electoral votes for the former vice president.

Traditionally a formality, the Electoral College vote, set for Monday by federal law, assumed enormous importance due to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in the November contest.

Results over weeks have shown that Biden won 306 votes in the electoral college, surpassing the 270 needed to win, after four tumultuous years under the Republican Trump administration. Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris will take office on January 20.

Biden planned a primetime address at 7:30 pm ET Monday (0030 GMT Tuesday) to mark the occasion and ask Americans to “turn the page” in the Trump era.

“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation long ago,” he was 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.

“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed.”

There was almost no chance that Monday’s vote would deny Biden’s victory, and with Trump’s legal campaign to reverse the results failing, the president’s vague hopes of holding onto power rest on persuading Congress not to accept the vote. Monday’s election during a special session on January 6 – an effort that is virtually certain to fail.

California, the most populous state in the United States, was expected to formally boost Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win overall after his constituents meet at 5 p.m. ET (2200 GMT).

Once in office, Biden is faced with the challenging task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, reviving the United States economy, and rebuilding relations worn down with America’s allies abroad by “America First” policies. of Trump.

THREATS OF VIOLENCE

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. sala, “repeating 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,” Hobbs said.

A group of Trump supporters called on Facebook for all-day protests Monday in front of the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, one of the most-fought states where Trump lost.

But by early afternoon only a few had gathered, 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.”

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.

(Here’s a graphic on how the Electoral College works: https://tmsnrt.rs/3lUKcgv)

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 “dishonest” voters who vote for someone who is not the winner of the popular vote in 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 pushed forward with his unprecedented campaign to reverse his defeat. On Monday, he repeated a series of unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

“Swing States that have encountered MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD, which is all, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete and correct without committing a severely punishable offense,” he wrote on Twitter.

TRUMP GAMBIT

Trump had asked Republican state lawmakers to name their own constituents, essentially ignoring the will of the voters, but lawmakers largely rejected the idea.

“I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to earn more than I did, ”said Lee Chatfield, Republican Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, in a statement. “But I also love our republic. I cannot 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.

Read next

Don’t miss the latest news and information.