US presidential election: the voters ratify Biden’s victory

This is an announcement without surprise. The American electoral college on Monday, December 14 approved Joe Biden’s victory in the American presidential election against a Donald Trump who still refuses to surrender. The vote of the large voters of California, a state won overwhelmingly by Joe Biden with more than 63% of the vote, allowed the Democrat to cross the barrier of 270 votes, synonymous with victory. The former vice president of Barack Obama will become on January 20 the 46^e president of the History of the United States.

This expected development was followed by another which was less so, when Donald Trump announced the departure of his Minister of Justice Bill Barr, whom the president had recently criticized for not having denounced the electoral fraud he wants. convince the world. “Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with the family, Deputy Justice Minister Jeff Rosen, an incredible person, will take over,” he said. tweeted the outgoing president.

“The integrity of our elections has been preserved”

If the stage of the vote of the big voters is traditionally a formality, Donald Trump gave it a particular relief by refusing to admit the verdict of the ballot box and giving echo to conspiracy theories on possible electoral cheating. “It is an extreme position that we have never seen before”, denounced Joe Biden during a speech from his stronghold of Wilmington (in Delaware), about the numerous legal actions initiated without success by the Republican. to have the results invalidated in certain states. “A position that refused to respect the will of the people, to respect the rule of law, and refused to honor our Constitution,” said the Democrat.

Joe Biden had for the moment refrained from attacking Donald Trump so head-on on the subject. “The integrity of our elections has been preserved. Now it’s time to turn the page. To bring us together, ”invited the future president of the United States. “The flame of democracy was lit a long time ago in this country. And we now know that nothing – not even a pandemic or an abuse of power – can extinguish that flame. ”

51.3% of the vote attributed to Biden

The results of the November 3 ballot have already been certified by each of the 50 American states: the Democrat won the record number of 81.28 million votes, or 51.3% of the vote, against 74.22 million (46.8 %) to the outgoing Republican President. But in the United States, the tenant of the White House is chosen by indirect universal suffrage, each state generally attributing its grand voters, whose number depends essentially on its population, to the candidate who wins locally. Although it has happened in the past that a small handful of large voters deviated from this rule, it never changed the outcome of the election. Here too, the certified results confirm the comfortable advance of Joe Biden, announced on November 7 by the major American media, with 306 voters against 232 for Donald Trump.

The 538 voters are local politicians, figures from civil society or relatives of a candidate. Most are unknown to the general public, but sometimes national figures are part of the electoral college. This is the case this year for former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his wife, the unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. “I am in favor of the abolition of the electoral college (…) but since it still exists, I was proud to bring my voice, in the State of New York, to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris”, has t – she tweeted.

Trump s’obstine

From the White House, Donald Trump has been denouncing for almost a month and a half, without supporting evidence but conspiracy theories, “the most rigged election in American history”. Almost all of his legal actions were dismissed. Ultimate humiliation, the Supreme Court, which it has yet profoundly reworked by appointing three judges and thereby consolidating the now strong conservative majority of six out of nine members, last week rejected two Republican appeals without even seizing it on the bottom.

Once Monday’s solemn step has been taken, will a greater number of elected Republicans agree to finally recognize the victory of Joe Biden? It’s possible. But it is unlikely that Donald Trump will fall into line, especially since according to polls, a large majority of his voters do not consider the Democrat a legitimate winner. He could try to take advantage of the complexity of an institutional process that stretches in length for a last standstill: some elected officials close to him plan to contest the results when Congress will be called upon to provide a final validation on January 6. . However, the process has hardly any chance of success.

In a scathing editorial, the Wall Street Journal felt it was time for Donald Trump to change his posture. “There is a time to fight and there is a time to recognize defeat,” he said.