Electoral College affirms Biden’s victory on a relatively calm day of a chaotic election. President-Elect Joe Biden has received enough electoral votes (302) to officially clinch the presidency, as was reported by CNN.
The incumbent US President Donald Trump received 232 electoral votes. The count in D.C. is still ongoing, yet there is no mathematical chance for Trump to claim victory.
One final step: US Congress shall officially approve election results on January 6. Biden's candidacy was supported, in particular, in California (55 voters), Arizona (11 voters), Wisconsin (10), Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Nevada (6), and Pennsylvania (20).
Kamala Harris will join Joe Biden as the first female Vice President of the United States.
What do you need to know?
Electoral College consists of 538 individuals, and the procedure for their nomination is determined by each state separately. Thus, the largest US state, California, has 55 electors. The second-largest state, Texas, has 38; New York and Florida have 29 each.
Electors are selected by parties at the beginning of the year. These are mostly middle-ranking party officials, although sometimes they might include high-ranking officials. They play the role of mediators, expressing the will of the voters in their states.
In 29 of the 50 US states and the District of Columbia, there are rules that require electors to vote only for the candidate who received the most votes in their state. Today's Electoral College vote is a procedural step that typically goes unnoticed. With Trump's vain attempts to challenge the election's legitimacy, however, the Electoral College vote became a widely anticipated event in 2020.
“It’s official, folks. Tune in as I deliver remarks on today’s electoral college vote certification and the strength and resilience of our democracy. I’m forever humbled by the fact that 5.7 million people chipped into power our campaign to victory," Biden tweeted as the results came in.
Donald Trump, in turn, has yet to comment on his opponent's victory. With the Supreme Court's rejection of pro-Trump attempts to annul several state results, the Electoral College vote serves as the last marker of Biden's apparent victory.
What's next?
The results of the vote of the electoral college must be officially approved by the US Congress. A joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives is expected to take place on January 6, 2021. Joe Biden's inauguration is set for January 20.