Paula Lugones
12/14/2020 7:29 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 12/14/2020 7:33 PM
Usually it is a formality that few pay attention to in the United States, but in the tumultuous era of “Trumpism” it acquired great symbolic value and enormous institutional relevance:
the Electoral College officially voted
Joe Biden as the future
on Monday
president of the country.
The Democrat received the majority of the electoral votes from the states and finally sealed his victory on November 3, despite the judicial offensive and pressure from Donald Trump to challenge the result of the polls.
With a vote without surprises in the Electoral College, Biden managed to
surpass the majority of 270 of the 538 votes necessary
to win, a ceremony in different states that formally endorsed the will of the Americans, after more than a month of a trial war that the president launched to try to reverse the elections that he denounces as fraudulent.
Biden celebrated with a very tough message for Trump and all his offensive to delegitimize the elections.
“In the United States, politicians don't take power, people grant it to them.
The flame of democracy was lit in this nation long ago.
And we know that nothing, not even a pandemic - or an abuse of power - can extinguish that flame.
“In this battle for the soul of the United States, democracy triumphed.
People voted.
Faith in our institutions was sustained.
The integrity of our choices remains intact
.
It is time to turn the page.
To unite, to heal ”, he added.
The Trumpist judicial offensive - which never presented serious evidence - was reviled in local, state and federal courts, and even in the Supreme Court, which on Friday refused to address a crucial lawsuit promoted by Texas and
supported by more than 120 Republican representatives .
This Monday's vote
ended up burying Trump's aspirations
to impeach Biden as the next president.
Voters in Georgia cast their vote.
AFP photo
When Americans cast their vote in November, they actually voted for a list of electors designated by the political parties in their state who are committed to supporting that party's candidate.
In other words, the formally recognized result is that of the Electoral College votes, distributed proportionally by population among the 50 states of the country plus the District of Columbia.
In the elections Biden
won 306 delegates
(above the minimum of the 270 necessary to reach the White House), while Trump obtained 232 of the total of 538. The Democrat also surpassed him, by about 7 million votes.
This result was also ratified in the Electoral College.
This Monday the electors of each state (usually party figures and state officials) voted as they had previously stated they would.
Although the US Constitution does
contemplate the case of "unfaithful voters" in some states,
and there was strong pressure from Trump for some Biden voters to change their vote for the president, none of that happened.
Institutionalism prevailed, despite warnings of “severe punishment” from the president to voters, who also received personal threats from Trump supporters.
In some places, like Michigan, voters voted in lockdown with security forces and with protests outside denouncing "vote theft."
Given the Democrat's edge and the court rejections of the alleged fraud, there were no surprises that could reverse the outcome.
Friday's court ruling against Trump
also lowered expectations that large numbers of voters would turn in favor of the Republican.
Electors who cast their ballots in local legislatures paraded in each state for several hours.
Well-known figures such as Bill and Hillary Clinton were seen in New York and Stacey Abrams in Georgia.
Once the count is finished in each state, the result is sent to the President of the Senate in Washington, a position held by Vice President Mike Pence, to
confirm the votes on January 6
, a date that sounds far away today but sounded consistent in the past. times when it was established, when votes traveled by wagon from all over the country.
Number 46
Later, on January 20, Biden's inauguration ceremony will be held as the
46th
president
of the United States
, along with Vice Kamala Harris.
Some Republicans may try to block the process in Congress, at least to settle their position.
According to The New York Times, at the forefront of this maneuver is Republican Congressman Mo Books of Alabama, who plans to discuss the outcome of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin.
This Sunday he tweeted: "
Congress is the final arbiter of who wins the presidential elections
, not the Supreme Court."
But it would only be a declarative maneuver because for any action of this type to succeed it would have to have the endorsement of the majority of the House of Representatives, which is in the hands of the Democrats.
The one-vote certification in Georgia.
AFP photo
In an unprecedented case in the history of the country, Trump has not yet recognized defeat and promises to continue fighting, although his weapons are increasingly meager.
“The United States runs the risk of having an illegitimate president.
But the battle is not over yet ”, he assured.
"What happened to this country is as if we were from the third world," he
said in an interview with Fox and insisted that there was fraud.
When asked if he would attend Biden's inauguration as president, he said he did not want to talk about it.
With his strategy of not admitting defeat, Trump
seeks to avoid posing as a loser
(something he hates) and position himself for a possible presidential candidacy in 2024. Meanwhile, he raises hundreds of millions of dollars for the court battle or his future plans.
Beyond the judicial rejections, the idea that there was fraud has caught on among 70% of his supporters
who are still excited
and that is in Trump's best interest to keep his bases firm.
Despite the fact that Trump has obtained the support of a large part of the party in his denunciations, within there are already several Republican voices that recommend Trump to turn the page and acknowledge his defeat.
The senator for Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, considered this weekend that the tycoon had no right "to go to court with misleading claims and without evidence."
"The electoral process
will be over on Monday if the voters vote for Joe Biden
, and I hope they will," Alexander said.
Many of the Trump legislators said that Biden's triumph had only been declared by the media (which reported the official results) and therefore did not recognize it.
If the judicial offensive has already been lost and the Electoral College elected Biden, they will not have too many arguments
not to sentence the "game over"
.
Look also
United States: How it works and why the Electoral College should confirm Joe Biden
United States: Donald Trump closes 2020 with the highest number of executions in the last hundred years