According to the tally of votes in the U.S. media as of the 23rd, Biden has received 306 electoral votes, and the number of popular votes is now close to 80 million; Trump has 232 electoral votes and nearly 74 million popular votes.
The U.S. presidential election adopts an indirect electoral system of the electoral college system. According to the U.S. Constitution, candidates can be elected president with 270 electoral votes.
Starting from November 20, the states of the United States began to officially determine the outcome of the general election and the ownership of electoral votes.
Earlier on the 23rd, Michigan, one of the key swing states, confirmed that Biden had all the electoral votes in the state. During the 2016 election, Trump won Michigan by about 11,000 votes. But the results of the 2020 election tally show that Biden has won more than 154,000 more popular votes than Trump in Michigan.
Previously, Georgia officially confirmed Biden to win the traditional Republican red state on the 20th after completing a manual recount, becoming the first Democrat to win the Georgia presidential election since 1992.
But the Trump campaign asked for another vote count on the 21st. According to US media reports, Georgia’s third count of votes will begin on the 24th and is scheduled to be completed by midnight on December 2.
Biden and Trump meet the state’s recount requirement because the gap between the general vote in Georgia is less than 0.5 percentage points.
In Pennsylvania, another key swing state, a federal judge rejected the Trump campaign’s lawsuit on the 21st to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying the election results. On the 23rd, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court also rejected the Trump campaign’s request, ruling that about 8,000 to 10,000 absentee and mail ballots with signature or date questions must be counted.
At present, Biden is ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania by more than 81,000 votes, and American media generally believe that Pennsylvania believes that Biden will win the election without any doubt.
Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina will certify election results on November 24, Ohio on November 28, and Arizona and Iowa on November 30, according to the New York Times.
Arizona Republicans’ lawsuit to postpone the certification of election results has been rejected by the court. Some Wisconsin counties were recounted at the Trump team’s request, and the deadline for certifying election results was December 1.
The accreditation process varies from state to state in the United States, but according to federal law, the governors will eventually summarize the results of the certification and submit the results to Congress together with the list of the state’s electoral college.
According to U.S. media reports, at least 30 electoral lawsuits from Trump or his supporters have been lost due to the failure to provide evidence of large-scale electoral fraud. The Wall Street Journal commented that the possibility of Trump overturning the election results is “increasingly small”.
Emily Murphy, director of the U.S. General Administration, wrote to Biden and his team on the 23rd that the Trump administration was ready to officially start the regime transition process.
Murphy’s statement means that the Trump administration officially gives Biden the treatment of “president-designate”, will provide Biden with national security briefings and coronavirus briefings, allow government departments to coordinate and dock with Biden’s transition team, allocate federal funds to ensure regime handover, etc.
After the U.S. media disclosed Murphy’s letter, President Trump said on social media Twitter that he suggested that Murphy start the transition process of the regime and asked his team to do the same.
However, Trump did not admit defeat in the election, but announced that he would “continue to fight” to challenge the election results.
The U.S. General Services Administration was established in 1949 to improve federal procurement and asset management and to ensure the deployment of federal resources and services during the post-election regime transition under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.
In the past, the U.S. General Services Administration usually wrote to the winner a few days after the U.S. media predicted the outcome of the presidential election to officially start the transition process.
This is a routine step between the U.S. presidential election and the inauguration of the new president.
Murphy was an official appointed after Trump came to power. In the election dispute, she was severely criticized by Democrats for her delay in starting the government transition process, and she was under increasing pressure from all sides.
A growing number of Republican U.S. senators, national security experts and business leaders are calling for the start of the regime transition process, demanding that Biden be allowed to receive high-level briefings on national security and vaccine distribution plans.
In an open letter to Murphy, more than 160 U.S. business leaders said that not providing the necessary resources and important information to Biden team “will put the American people, the economic health and safety at risk.”
More than 100 former Republican national security officials, including former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte A joint statement was also issued calling for an orderly transition.
Under federal law, the states must resolve the election dispute by December 8 this year. Electors will meet in the states on December 14 to formally vote for the president and vice president.
The new Congress will be formed on January 3, 2021, and a joint meeting will be held on January 6 to formally count the electoral votes and announce the winners of the presidential election.
At noon on January 20, 2021, the transfer of presidential power was completed, and the current president officially lost all presidential power.
