(REUTERS): Electors, representing each US state, will formally vote for Joe Biden as the next US president today, ending President Donald Trump’s frenzied but failing attempt to overturn his loss in the November 3 election.
The state-by-state votes, traditionally an afterthought, have taken on outsized significance this year in light of Trump’s unprecedented assault on the nation’s democratic process.
Donald Trump has pressured state officials to throw the election results out and declare him the winner. In United States, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through an Electoral College system.
The candidate who receives 270 votes or more from Electoral College electors will be affirmed as the winner of the US election. Election results show Biden, the Democratic former vice president, won 306 of the 538 electoral votes available – exceeding the necessary 270. Trump, a Republican, earned 232.
In capitols such as Lansing, Michigan; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia, electors will gather to formally cast those votes.
While there are sometimes a handful of ‘rogue’ electors who vote for someone other than the winner of their state’s popular vote. Trump has called on Republican state legislators to appoint their own electors, essentially ignoring the will of the voters.
The votes cast on Monday will be sent to Congress to be officially counted on January 6, the final stage of America’s complex election process.
Trump said late last month he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden, but has since pressed on with his unprecedented campaign to overturn his defeat.
Once the Electoral College vote is complete, Trump’s sole remaining gambit would be to convince Congress not to certify the count on Jan. 6. Federal law allows individual lawmakers to challenge states’ electoral votes, which prompts both the House of Representatives and the Senate to debate the objections before voting on whether to sustain them.
