Pennsylvania and Nevada certified Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election on Tuesday, further striking US President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the results.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe first revealed in a tweet that the State Department had approved the vote count for the president and vice president. Wolf, a Democrat, sent a “Certificate of Confirmation” to the National Archivist in Washington with the list of voters supporting President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, the Nevada Supreme Court secured Biden’s victory as state official after it approved the state’s final request for the November 3 election. The unanimous measure by the seven nonpartisan judges sends the results to Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, who will deliver six electoral votes from Biden’s western state.
The lawsuit has attracted increased scrutiny amid legal efforts by the state’s Republican Party and Trump’s campaign to block mailing ballots to all of the 1.82 million active registered voters and then halt the counting of 1.4 million cast ballots.
The six Democratic presidential electors are to meet in Nevada on December 14 in the state’s capital, Carson City. The 20 Pennsylvania voters, a mix of elected Democrats, party activists and other strong Biden supporters, will gather in Harrisburg, the state capital, on the same day.
Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania made him the more than 270 electoral votes needed to become president, prompting the Associated Press to announce him the president-elect on November 7. Biden collected 306 electoral votes in total to 232 for Trump.
The Pennsylvania results show Biden and Harris with 3.46 million votes, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence with 3.38 million votes, and Libertarian Joe Jorgensen with 79,000 votes.
Biden won Nevada by 33,596 votes, according to results approved by elected officials in the state’s 17 counties – including Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and Washoe County, which includes Reno. Biden received 50.06% of the vote and Trump received 47.67%.
The transition is underway despite Trump’s ongoing legal efforts
Trump has made Pennsylvania the focus of his failed legal attempts to nullify the election results. On Saturday, a federal judge dealt a serious blow to the campaign’s legal efforts by dismissing a lawsuit he said lacked evidence and presented “tense, unfounded legal arguments and speculative accusations.”
Also, certification of the Nevada vote does not preclude many lawsuits pending in state and federal courts. They include bids for a re-vote by two Republican congressional candidates and a competitor in the state Senate, the open records case by the state Republican Party, and a U.S. District Court action alleging that thousands of ineligible people voted.
A federal judge in that case rejected an offer to issue an immediate injunction that would have stopped using the signature verification scanner during vote counting.
On Monday, the General Services Administration (GSA), the US federal agency that has to sign the presidential transition, informed Biden that he could formally initiate the transition.
“I am delighted to receive confirmation from the Public Security Agency to conduct a smooth and peaceful transition of power so that our teams can prepare for the challenges at hand: to control the epidemic, rebuild better, and protect safety and security,” Biden said on Tuesday while introducing his national security and foreign policy team to “the security of the American people.” .
Watch | The journalist says approval to move is “the closest we can get” from the Trump concession:
Mark Fischer, chief editor of The Washington Post, said US President Donald Trump will remain openly defiant and despise the General Services Administration’s official approval of President-elect Joe Biden’s move. 4:23
Biden said his choice of Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, would rebuild morale and confidence in the US State Department, which is responsible for the country’s diplomatic relations. In addition to Blinken, Biden’s team includes Jake Sullivan as National Security Adviser and Linda Thomas Greenfield as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Biden said the team embodied its core belief that “America is strongest when it works with its allies.” “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back and ready to lead the world, not withdraw from it,” he said at a news briefing in Wilmington, Dell.
Georgia begins a recount
In Georgia, county election workers have begun automatic counting of votes for the nearly five million votes cast in the state’s presidential race, just days after completing a hand count that confirmed Biden’s lead.
Trump asked for a recount after certified results showed he lost the state to Biden by 12,670 votes, or 0.25 percent. Under state law, the losing candidate can request a recount when the margin is less than 0.5 percent. The Trump campaign on Saturday officially requested a recount.
Counties are allowed to begin automatic recounting at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, and they have until 11:59 p.m. on December 2 to finish that.
Last Thursday, election officials announced the results of the hand count in the presidential race that arose out of scrutiny but was not considered an official recount under state law. The day after Secretary of State Brad Ravensberger announced that the outcome confirmed Biden’s progress, he endorsed the election results. Then Governor Brian Kemp approved the state’s list of 16 presidential electors, a group of prominent Democrats.
Under state election board rules, a formal recount must be performed by machine, specifically high-speed scanners that read and tabulate votes.
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