“It’s not simply out of custom however to indicate of us, particularly now greater than ever, our system works,” Gov. Chris Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire, mentioned earlier than the vote in his state.
Although the assembly of the Electoral Faculty is a crucial milestone within the democratic course of, it’s not often one that pulls outsize consideration and turns into a significant political occasion. However because the president continued his relentless marketing campaign to subvert the election, the vote on Monday had loomed as an essential deadline, promising to convey some sense of finality to one of the crucial difficult elections in generations.
Information organizations offered updates all through the day as states voted, and CNN offered reside protection. Most of the states, in a nod to transparency, live-streamed their proceedings.
Regardless of his definitive defeat within the Electoral Faculty vote, Mr. Trump has remained defiant. Over the weekend, he attacked the Supreme Court docket for rejecting a problem to the election outcomes and continued to make baseless accusations on Twitter about voter fraud. He has proven no signal that he intends to concede the election.
The more and more caustic language from the president has saved tensions excessive all through the nation, as protests in Washington on Saturday devolved into violence. Anticipating extra demonstrations, some states offered safety for the voting websites, and although large-scale protests by no means materialized, some election officers spoke out towards the rhetoric.
The baseless accusations of misconduct and fraud have solid “a man-made shadow” over the Electoral Faculty vote, Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state in Arizona, mentioned as she opened the assembly of electors in her state. “And this fabrication of misdeed leveled towards everybody, from ballot employees to me and my workplace, has led to threats of violence towards me, my workplace and people on this room at the moment.”
The drama surrounding the Electoral Faculty was all of the extra uncommon as a result of there was no state wherein the vote was shut sufficient to go away the end in doubt. Even in Georgia, the place the ultimate tally was sufficiently slim to immediate two recounts, Mr. Biden gained by almost 12,000 votes.