By Aaron Miller-
Key states forming the U.S electoral college system have began formally confirming the election victory on Joe Biden on Monday, with the state of Michigan the first to declare its winner.
The presence of security was notably high in some states as electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the six battleground states that Mr Biden won and which was subsequently contested by Trump , casts their votes for the Democrat and vice president-elect Kamala Harris their votes in low-key proceedings.
Election results from November reveal Biden won 306 electoral college votes, exceeding the 270 needed to win, after four tumultuous years under Trump. The president-elect and running mate Kamala Harris are due to take office on 20 January.
Biden was due to make a speech at 8pm on Monday about the electoral college, hailing the strength and resilience of our democracy”, his transition team said.
Electoral college members in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin voted for Biden on Monday, confirming his victories in battleground states Trump challenged in court. Electors in Arizona, which Trump lost after winning in 2016, cast the state’s votes for Biden.
“While there will be those who are upset their candidate didn’t win, it is patently un-American and unacceptable that today’s event should be anything less than an honoured tradition held with pride and in celebration,” the Arizona secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, said.
The Democrat said Trump’s claims of voter fraud had “led to threats of violence against me, my office and those in this room today”, echoing similar reports of threats and intimidation in other states.
A group of Trump supporters called on Facebook for protests all day outside the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan, but the turn out was minimal.
A presidential candidate becomes the U.S president, through the electoral college, which allots votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on population.
Trump promised to leave the White House if the electoral college voted for Biden, but has filed numerous lawsuits challenging state vote counts. On Monday, he repeated a series of unsupported claims of electoral fraud.
One republican candidate who is was an ardent supporter of president Trump said in a statement:
“I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to win more than me,” Lee Chatfield, the Republican speaker of the Michigan house of representatives, said in a statement. “But I love our republic, too. I can’t fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump.”
In 2016, Trump won the electoral college despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3million votes.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was among New York members of the Electoral College to cast the state’s first electoral vote for Joe Biden.
The former U.S presidential candidate was joined by former president Bill Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who are both among the state’s 29 electors to cast their ballots on 14 December, as the voting body across the US formally selects the winning presidential candidate. The governor also is president of the state’s electoral college.
Ms Clinton spectacularly called for the dissolution of the Electoral College, with the winner of the presidential election determined by a popular vote.
“I believe we should abolish the Electoral College and select our president by the winner of the popular vote, same as every other office,” she said in a post on social media.
“But while it still exists, I was proud to cast my vote in New York for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” she said.