Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump confirmed by US Electoral College

Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump confirmed by US Electoral College

The next step will come on January 6, when Congress will be tasked with certifying the Electoral College results.

The US Electoral College has elected former vice-president Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States.

The vote, which took place in all 50 states and the capital city of Washington on Monday, formalised Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, even as Trump and his most loyal allies in Congress continued to deny that reality and refused to acknowledge Biden’s win.

Needing 270 Electoral College votes to win, Biden secured all 306 of the votes he was expected to receive, with no instances of “faithless electors” voting against their state’s winner. The president-elect’s 306-232 win over Trump was by the same majority with which Trump won the 2016 election – an outcome he then described as a “landslide”.

The next step will come on January 6, when Congress will be tasked with certifying the Electoral College results.

Vice-President Mike Pence, whose other title is president of the Senate, will oversee that session of Congress, and may find himself having to be the one who makes the final declaration that he and Trump have lost the election.

Speaking in Delaware on Monday night to acknowledge the formalisation of his victory, Biden slammed the Trump campaign’s continued and unsuccessful efforts to overturn the result of the election, and applauded state and local officials for refusing to “give credence to what they knew was not true”.

“Our democracy – pushed, tested, threatened – proved to be resilient, true and strong,” Biden said.

With all 50 states and Washington having counted and certified their votes, Biden’s popular vote lead over Trump stood at 81,283,495 votes to 74,223,755 votes, according to Associated Press.

Biden secured a slew of states in the Midwest that Trump had won four years ago, and was also the first Democrat to win the states of Arizona and Georgia since the 1990s.

But winning the popular vote does not mean winning the presidency. Trump lost the national popular vote four years ago by almost 3 million votes.

The United States does not choose its president via direct elections. Instead, citizens in each state cast ballots for designated electors who pledge to support a specific presidential candidate.


New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to members of New York state’s Electoral College before voting for president and vice-president in Albany, New York on Monday.


When the electors meet to vote every four years on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, they are expected to vote in line with the will of the people in each state, though occasionally there are a few “faithless electors” who vote their own way.

While states counted and recounted their votes in the weeks leading up to the Electoral College vote, Trump and his loyal supporters spent that time insisting, without evidence to support their claims, that the only way Trump could have lost the election is because of a widespread conspiracy of fraud against him.

Trump’s legal team and its allies initiated dozens of lawsuits in states where Biden won, seeking to nullify the results of the election in those states, and they have been resoundingly rejected by judges, including judges appointed by Trump.

Trump also clashed in recent weeks with US Attorney General William Barr – considered one of Trump’s most loyal cabinet members – after Barr defied Trump and confirmed that there was no widespread election fraud. Just minutes after Biden passed 270 votes on Monday, and perhaps timed to distract from it, Trump announced on Twitter that Barr would be leaving his administration.

In one high-profile case, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to convince the US Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s victories in four other states. Critics suggested that Paxton, who is under investigation by the FBI for corruption, may be trying to entice Trump to grant him a pardon.

Nevertheless, 17 other state attorneys general and 126 members of Congress publicly supported him.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it was refusing to hear the case. Trump tweeted afterwards that the court lacked “courage”.


Stephen Roe Lewis, a member of Arizona’s Electoral College, signs his name to the Arizona presidential electoral ballot on Monday in Phoenix.


While the electors were casting their votes on Monday, one of Trump’s closest advisers, Stephen Miller, suggested that “alternate” electors would vote instead for a Trump victory – although no such position exists, and any “votes” they claim to be casting would be irrelevant to the final tally.

Some Republican members of Congress suggested that they will not vote to certify the election results when they come before Congress on January 6.

That process, said Martha Kropf, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is typically a formality that most Americans would not normally be watching.

It “should simply re-emphasise what each of the 50 states and Washington already have decided,” she said. To suggest that the election is still contested, she said, is “nonsense”.

Kropf, an expert in US elections, added that it was “unprecedented” that the administration was taking its challenges so far.

Along with the legal challenges have also come massive public pressure and threats against state officials and election workers.

The state of Michigan closed its state capitol building on Monday because of threats, and Arizona’s electors cast their ballots from an “undisclosed location” to keep safe, according to CNN.


Democratic Electoral College elector Steve Henson looks at his signed vote for Joe Biden for president of the United States in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday.


“The thing about all of this is that we’ve simply not got to this point in the past,” Kropf said, though she added that it was unlikely that either chamber of Congress would actually stop the certification.

Once the certification is done, it still remains unclear whether Trump will leave the White House willingly when his term ends on January 20 at 12.01pm. Neither the White House nor the Trump campaign immediately responded to requests for comment on Monday evening.

In late November, Trump was asked whether he would concede defeat if the Electoral College declared him the loser of the election.

“Certainly, I will. And you know that,” he said at the time.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
EU Proposes Phasing Out Russian Oil and Gas by End of 2027 to End Energy Dependence
More Than 150,000 Followers for a Fictional Character: The New Influencers Are AI Creations
EU Prepares for War
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Druzhba Pipeline Incident Sparks Geopolitical Tensions
Cost of Opposition Leader Péter Magyar's Economic Plan Revealed
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
×