US Electoral College set to confirm Biden win

World

Published: 2020-12-14 16:24

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 17:16


Photo: France24
Photo: France24

 

Members of the US electorate vote Monday to confirm that Joe Biden officially won the presidency of the United States. In normal circumstances, the vote is a formality, but this year it is noteworthy as Donald Trump continues to refuse to admit his defeat.

Each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have ratified the November 3 election; The Democratic candidate won 81.3 million votes, or 51.3 percent of the vote, compared to 74.2 million votes, or 46.8 percent, for the Republican president.

However, the United States chooses its president by indirect universal suffrage, whereby each state grants the votes of its electors on the electorate, whose numbers are determined in relation to the population, to the candidate who won the state's popular vote.

The results confirm Biden's victory easily, by obtaining the votes of 306 members out of 538 in the electorate, compared to 232 for Trump. 

Although some "disloyal voters" argued in recent years, with their votes not for the winning candidate in their states, their number was never enough to change the election result, so Biden's victory is expected to become official and final Monday.

But Trump, who remains in the presidency until January 20, has continued to make allegations based on no evidence that the November vote was "the most fraudulent election in US history," and he tweeted again Sunday.

"How do states and politicians confirm elections in which corruption and irregularities have been documented?"

In reality, his team was unable to document any widespread fraud, and courts dismissed his appeals in dozens of cases to dozens of judges.

- Final humiliation -

In a final insult, the US Supreme Court refused Friday, despite its conservative majority, including three judges appointed by Trump himself, to even consider an appeal filed by the Texas authorities and another filed by Republicans as well, with the aim of canceling the presidential election results in a number of states.

Trump's fraud allegations are backed by many Republican lawmakers.

Some of them may finally be ready to admit Biden’s victory, after the electorate endorses him.

But with polls released showing that only one in four Republicans accept the election results as valid, Trump is not expected to give up anytime soon.

“We are just starting to fight !!!” he wrote on Twitter.

And at the end of last week, when asked on Fox News if he would attend Biden's inauguration on January 20, pursuant to protocol and centuries of tradition, the former real estate mogul said, "I don't want to talk about it."

The president may seek to use the complex and long-term transition process to make a last-ditch effort to nullify the outcome, as some of his Republican allies in Congress intend to challenge the results on January 6, when Congress formally endorses the results of the electorate's vote.

However, such a maneuver has practically no chance of success.