Elections

California Electors Push Joe Biden Over 270 Vote Threshold, Delivering Him The Presidency

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Marlo Safi Culture Reporter
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President-elect Joe Biden cleared the 270 electoral votes he needed to win the presidential election after electors formally affirmed his victory Monday, numerous sources reported.

California’s 55 electors cast their votes in what is typically a discrete step in the election process, pushing Biden past the 270 vote threshold with no elector casting a vote for President Donald Trump. 

Biden carried 306 electoral votes, while Trump carried 232. California was one of the last states to vote, along with several battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which also voted for Biden Monday. 

Trump has refused to concede the election, and filed a motion to intervene a week prior in a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which sought to invalidate votes from four of the battleground states over voter fraud allegations. The lawsuit was rejected by the Supreme Court, dealing a blow to Trump and his allies who sought to overturn the 2020 election results. (RELATED: Texas GOP Chair Suggests ‘Law-Abiding States’ Form Their Own Union After Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit To Overturn Election Results)

Wiconsin’s Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit earlier Monday from Trump’s campaign seeking to overturn his election loss in the state.

“The only reason the country is caring about the drama of the electoral college votes — which is normally not any kind of drama at all — is because of Trump’s continued insistence that he’s going to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hate [sic] and remain in office,” Rick Hasen, an election law expert at University of California Law School said, according to CAP radio.

 “There’s no legal path for him to do that.”

The voting took place in states capitals with modifications due to the pandemic. In some states, there was heightened security due to threats of violence. 

Republican electors turned out in the states Biden won to vote for Trump, and in Pennsylvania, Republican electors said they cast a “procedural vote” just in case the courts determined that Trump had won despite rejections of challenges to Biden’s victory. In states where Trump won, like North Carolina and Utah, his electors duly cast votes for him.

Biden is expected to speak Monday evening, and has emphasized his promise to represent all Americans, no matter who they voted for.

“We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal,” the remarks prepared for the speech said, according to the Associated Press. 

The following step is for the Office of the Federal Register to post the electoral college results after Congress counts them on Jan. 6.