California certifies poll results, Biden officially secures enough electors to become Prez

California certified its presidential election on Friday and appointed 55 electors who voted for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House. Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s formal approval of Biden’s win in California brought his tally of electors to 279, which is just over the 270-threshold for victory.

Despite this, President Donald Trump continues to deny Biden’s victory and increasingly pursues specious legal strategies to overturn the results before they are finalized. Although it’s been apparent for weeks that Biden won the presidential election, his accrual of more than 270 electors is the first step toward the White House, said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University.

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“It is a legal milestone and the first milestone that has that status,” Foley said. “Everything prior to that was premised on what we call projections.”

The 55 electors named on Friday will meet on December 14, along with counterparts in each state, to formally vote for the next president. Results of the Electoral College vote are due to be received and approved by Congress on January 6. The White House governed by Democrats and the Senate controlled by Republicans would both vote separately to resolve any disputes.

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Trump's failed attempts to overturn poll results

Meanwhile, Trump has made several fruitless attempts to stop the states from certifying Biden as the winner of the polls and appointing electors in favour of the former vice president. He made no effort in deeply Democratic California, the most populous state in the nation and the store of its largest number of electoral voters. Three other states won by Biden — Colorado, Hawaii and New Jersey are yet to certify their results. When they do, Biden will have 306 Electoral College votes against Trump’s 232.

Trump and his allies have brought at least 50 legal cases trying to overturn the results in the swing states won by Biden which mainly include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Over 30 of the cases have been rejected or dropped, according to an AP tally.

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(With inputs from agency)