Now that the December eighth “safe harbor” deadline has come and gone, and Trump’s legal team has failed to overturn election results in any of the state and federal voter-fraud lawsuits, the Associated Press has concluded President-Elect Joe Biden will officially be certified as the next POTUS.
Voters cast their ballots for the 2020 Presidential election over a month ago. Still, the vote that matters is on Monday, when the electoral college meets to certify the popular votes from their respective states. The US Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president. The electors usually pledge their votes towards the winner of that state’s popular vote. In a few instances, electors defected.
Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral college votes compared to President Trump’s 232, well past the 270-vote minimum limit needed to win the electoral college, and therefore, the presidency.
Donald Trump and his legal team have worked tirelessly to overturn the popular vote counts in key battleground states since November third to no avail. Their lawsuits against state and federal courts have largely been rejected due to a lack of evidence to substantiate their claims of widespread voter fraud.
The spotlight on the electoral college vote this year shines brightly as it will be another nail in the coffin of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential hopes. No electors have reported an intention to defect from the election.
The Supreme Court shot down a Pennsylvania voter fraud lawsuit yesterday. Today, Texas AG Ken Paxton hopes the Supreme Court will hear his suit vying to nullify the voting results from GA, PA, WI, and MI. 17 other Republican attorneys general have signed on to the request, along with an official letter of endorsement from the Trump legal team.
Experts believe this final longshot lawsuit will not be enough to stop the impending electoral college certification of Joe Biden. But then again, this is 2020, after all.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice officially reopened their investigations into Hunter Biden’s business dealings that fizzled out before the election. The probes look into allegations of potential tax fraud and counterintelligence concerns over Chinese businessmen Hunter Biden was associated with.
So far, Joe Biden has not been implicated in the investigations, but Republicans are expressing anger over the inquiry’s timing.
More people, including death penalty abolitionists and activists, are expressing their anger over the execution of Brandon Bernard, a 40-year-old who was charged with murder twenty-two years ago. President Trump ordered the execution and is expected to order four more in his remaining month in office.
Sources:
AP News
The Guardian