Joe Biden passed the 270-vote threshold on Monday to be officially chosen by the Electoral College as the next US president.
With California's 55 votes, Biden hit the landmark. Biden hit 306 votes after Hawaii then added its count. 232 was received from new US President Donald Trump.
"In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden said in a speech after the Electoral College verified his victory. "We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact."
Confronting Trump's fraud allegations
Trump, who has long refuted the election outcome, continued to make allegations that on Monday the election was rigged. He said in a tweet that an unpublished voting report in a county in Michigan could be an "election changing result." Twitter flagged the assertion as contested.
Trump's allegations and litigation in many states were met by Biden, who sought to deny the election results.
"It's a position so extreme we've never seen it before. A position that refused to respect the will of the people refused to respect the rule of law, and refused to honor our constitution," Biden said.
The threats of violence against the election officials were also condemned by Biden.
"It is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election," he said.
What is the Electoral college?
As Trump has so far declined to allow the presidency, the Electoral College has taken on a more significant role in 2020.
The electoral college consists of 538 delegates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the same number of Congressional representatives and senators. Usually, they meet and vote for the president and vice president in their respective state capital.
Each state and DC operates under a winner-take-all policy, except Maine and Nebraska, where the candidate with the most votes in their state receives their entire allotment. The electoral college vote allotment of each state is decided every ten years by its population from the census.
There are two electors in Maine and Nebraska that choose the candidate with the most votes statewide, and each Congressional district chooses its own elector who will endorse the option of the district. For Biden and Trump, Maine had three electoral college votes, while Nebraska had four voters back Trump and one goes to Biden.
What next?
In order to validate the electoral college votes, Congress will meet on January 6.
On January 20, 2021, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are due to be sworn in at noon.
