Electoral College Will Formally Vote Monday Confirming Biden’s Presidential Win
(Reuters) – Electors will gather in state capitols across the country on Monday to formally vote for Joe Biden as the next U.S. president, effectively ending President Donald Trump’s frenzied but failing attempt to overturn his loss in the Nov. 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. Pushing false claims of widespread fraud, Trump has pressured state officials to throw the election results out and declare him the winner.
In the United States, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through an Electoral College system, which allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population.
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.
