The aftermath of the U.S. presidential election has taken another big step.
The 538 members of the Electoral College met in their respective states Monday to officially cast their votes for president and vice-president. CBS News reported that as of 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, California had cast its 55 electoral votes for Joe Biden, sealing his election win with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris.
The Electoral College vote is a big part of the constitutional process of electing a president in the U.S. When U.S. voters went to the polls last month, they did not choose a candidate directly, but rather a slate of electors to cast the actual votes. For example, Michigan, which has 16 electoral votes, chose 16 Democratic electors to vote for Biden, who had won the state's popular vote.
Biden finished with 306 electoral votes, to the incumbent President Donald Trump's 232. Based on the results of the popular vote in each state, that is the expected Electoral College vote total.
The final step in the process takes place on January 6, 2021, when the electors' votes are opened during a joint session of Congress, counted and certified. Once the totals are affirmed as expected, Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.
While the Constitution does not spell out a requirement for electors to go by the popular vote of their state's voters, it is fully expected that they do so. Some states have made it a crime for so-called "faithless electors" to vote against the winner of the state's popular vote.
Trump and his campaign's legal team had vowed to contest the results and overturn the election in their favour, citing unproven charges of widespread voter fraud. Dozens of lawsuits had been filed across the country, mostly in the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Almost all of them have been dismissed or dropped. The U.S. Supreme Court over the weekend refused to hear a challenge by Texas's attorney general, which asked that the votes in those other states be thrown out.
Trump has refused to concede the election, and Biden has proceeded with his transition by nominating key staff and Cabinet members. The president's supporters have continued their fight to overturn the results despite Biden being certified as the winner.
CBS reported Monday night that in Michigan, Democratic electors showing up at the Capitol in Lansing had police escorts, to address what was called "credible threats of violence".
