On Monday, the Electoral College designated Joe Biden the winner of the election. California cast its 55 votes to put the former VP over the 270 threshold required for victory.
By the time Hawaii votes at 7 p.m. Biden is supposed to have 306 votes as compared to Trump’s 232.
The president-elect is to speak an hour later about the Electoral College vote. As per pre-released transcripts, he will say, “Now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.”
A joint session of the Congress on 6 January is to calculate the final tally from all 50 states.
Hilary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate from 2016, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton cast votes in New York. The former first lady tweeted, “I believe we should abolish the Electoral College and select our president by the winner of the popular vote, same as every other office. But while it still exists, I was proud to cast my vote in New York for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris”.
The vote usually doesn’t involve much fanfare when it occurs every four years but the refusal to concede by Trump and challenges by his legal team made this an event of some scrutiny. All allegations of election fraud made by the Republicans have been rejected by local and federal courts. Last Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a complaint filed by Texas to reject the results of four swing states where Biden won – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.
Trump claimed to be disappointed by the verdict of the Supreme Court and stated that the fight was “not over”.
Each state is given a number of electoral votes by the constitution based on its congressional delegation of two senators as well as representatives in the House.
All states other than Nebraska and Maine give all of their votes to the winner of the popular vote in their state.
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