The electoral college officially certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trumpon December 14th. California’s 55 electoral votes pushed Biden over the threshold of 270 votes necessary for him to become 46th president of the United States, simultaneously making Senator Kamala Harris the first woman and African American to be elected as vice president.
The vote of the electoral college has typically been overlooked, one that seems to have been little more than a ceremony in recent years has become another significant event during the tumultuous 2020 election. This has put an end to Donald Trump and the GOP’s efforts to overturn Biden’s win and suppress the will of the people. All of the battleground states that Trump has tried to overturn — Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona — have casted their electoral votes for Biden.
At 10 a.m. on December 14th, the voting started with Vermont, where all three electors voted for Biden as planned, and no electors voted for a different person than the people they represented. Michigan closed their Capital during the time of voting, Arizona held its vote in a secret, and electors from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin entered through an unmarked entrance with armed guards due to threats of violence.
After the vote was completed, President-elect Biden made a televised speech early in the evening of December 14th and announced that “democracy prevailed”.
The vote will be officially counted next month in Congress on January 6th. President-elect Biden will be sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th .
