Election deadline leaves Joe Biden a step closer to US presidency

By the end of the day, every state is expected to have made its election results official
By the end of the day, every state is expected to have made its election results official Copyright J. Scott Applewhite/Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
By Everton GayleAP
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Today marks 'Safe Harbour' deadline day in the US, when electors must ratify recounts and certify results from the November election. This means once states have rubber-stamped their counts, there's little room to manoeuvre for Donald Trump with his voter fraud claims.

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Tuesday is "Safe Harbour" deadline day in the US. It's when electors must settle legal disputes, ratify recounts and certify results from the 3 November Presidential Election.

This means that once states have rubber-stamped their counts, there's little room for Donald Trump to manoeuvre with his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

This takes Joe Biden one step closer to be confirmed as the 46th President of the United States.

Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met a deadline in federal law that essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on 6 January. Those votes will elect Biden as the country's next president.

It's called a safe harbour provision because it’s a kind of insurance policy by which a state can lock in its electoral votes by finishing up certification of the results and any state court legal challenges by a congressionally imposed deadline, which this year is Tuesday.

In 2020, that date is 14 December. But Congress also set another deadline, six days before electors meet, to insulate state results from being challenged in Congress.

By the end of the day, every state is expected to have made its election results official, awarding 306 electoral votes to Biden and 232 to President Donald Trump.

The outgoing President has had a majority of his legal disputes around November's vote thrown out of court.

But according to Ray Suarez, Euronews' Washington reporter, Safe Harbour day will not deter the Trump legal team.

"The President's legal team is going to keep on fighting, keep on trying to climb the appellant ladder, and hoping to reach the US Supreme Court with its various complaints," Suarez said.

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