Electoral College: Biden affirmed president-elect as California electors push him over 270 votes
Electors cast definitive votes for president-elect
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Joe Biden has received more than 270 Electoral College votes, securing the president-elect’s victory as electors across the country cast their votes on behalf of the 50 states and the Washington DC to choose the next president.
In a speech to her state’s electors, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said: "After today, the results will be final. It's time to move forward together."
Donald Trump has meanwhile continued to rage against his election defeat on Twitter, arguing without evidence for his claims that: "Swing States that have found massive VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete & correct without committing a severely punishable crime."
Mr Biden received 306 votes to Mr Trump’s 232 in accordance with last month’s election results, bringing the country closer to ending a nightmarish post-election period in which the president has doggedly contested his challenger’s victory through a series of frivolous lawsuits.
He has thus far comprehensively failed to substantiate his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, with dozens of challenges filed by his campaign in crucial swing states that he won in 2016.
Following the votes, two more top Republican senators have acknowledged Mr Biden’s victory, including South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Missouri’s Roy Blunt.
The results now head to Washington to be tallied during a joint session of Congress. Vice president Mike Pence will preside.
Mr Biden is set to be sworn into office on 20 January.
Check out The Independent’s live coverage and analysis below.
► For the latest on the presidency, follow our dedicated Donald Trump liveblog
Trump insists challenge ‘not over’ and attacks Supreme Court
Today’s state-by-state votes, traditionally a formality and an afterthought, have taken on outsized significance this year in light of Trump's unprecedented assault on the nation's democratic process.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview aired on Sunday, the president insisted the matter was “not over” and expressed concern about the nation being led by an “illegitimate” successor.
“No, it's not over. We keep going and we're going to continue to go forward. We have numerous local cases,” Trump told Brian Kilmeade of Fox and Friends, claiming falsely that he won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, while noting that he has an ongoing case in Wisconsin.
“We're going to speed it up as much as we can, but you can only go so fast,” the president told the pundit as they attended the Army-Navy football game at West Point on Saturday. “They give us very little time. But we caught them, as you know, as fraudulent, dropping ballots, doing so many things, nobody can even believe it.”
“This wasn't like a close election,” Trump insisted. “You look at Georgia. We won Georgia big. We won Pennsylvania big. We won Wisconsin big. We won it big.”
“What happened to this country is we were like a third world country,” he continued.
He kept it up last night on Twitter, still disputing the outcome (and getting censored) before attacking the US Supreme Court for “chickening out” rather than supporting the challenge brought on his behalf by Texas’s attorney general and a collective of swing states last week.
Griffin Connolly has this report.
Desperate Trump insists election is ‘not over’ as electoral college prepares to seal Biden victory
‘No, it’s not over. We keep going. And we’re going to continue to go forward,’ Mr Trump said
Electoral College to confirm Biden as president-elect
The 538 members of the US Electoral College will convene on Monday to cast their votes on behalf of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) to choose the next president, formally confirming Joe Biden as president-elect.
Barring surprise defections, Mr Biden is expected to claim 306 votes to Donald Trump’s 232 in accordance with last month’s election results, bringing the country closer to ending a nightmarish post-election period in which Trump has doggedly contested his landslide defeat through a series of frivolous lawsuits, which have so far comprehensively failed to substantiate his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Today’s results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a 6 January joint session of Congress over which vice president Mike Pence will preside, paving the way for Biden’s inauguration two weeks later.
In 32 states and DC, laws require electors to vote for the popular-vote winner. The US Supreme Court unanimously upheld this arrangement in July. Electors almost always vote for the state winner anyway because they generally are devoted to their political party. While there are sometimes a handful of "rogue" electors who vote for someone other than the winner of their state's popular vote, the vast majority just rubber-stamp their state's results.
Officials do not expect anything different on Monday.
In capitols such as Lansing, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia, electors - typically party loyalists - will gather to formally cast those votes. The process is decidedly low tech - by paper ballot. Electors cast one vote each for president and vice president.
Prominent electors readers may recognise from Monday’s proceedings include Democrat Stacey Abrams of Georgia and the Republican governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem.
The Electoral College was the product of compromise during the drafting of the US Constitution between those who favoured electing the president by popular vote and those who opposed giving the people the power to choose their leader.
Each state gets a number of electors equal to their total number of seats in Congress: two senators plus however many members the state has in the House of Representatives. Washington, DC, has three votes, under a constitutional amendment that was ratified in 1961. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, states award all their Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote in their state.
The bargain struck by the nation's Founding Fathers has produced five elections in which the president did not win the popular vote. Trump was the most recent example in 2016, but Biden topped him by more than 7m votes in November.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage as the US Electoral College casts its votes for the next president, formally confirming Joe Biden as president-elect.
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