The Electoral College officially elects Joe Biden in the United States today: could there be any surprises?

It is a formality that few people in the United States have paid attention to, but in the tumultuous era of “Trumpism” it takes on great symbolic value and significance. huge relevance institutional. This Monday, the electoral college begins the process to officially elect Joe Biden as the future president of the country and the Democrat would therefore finally be sealed his triumph on November 3, despite the legal offensive and pressure from Trump to challenge the poll results.

The trial war launched by the president to try to overthrow the elections he denounces as fraudulent was insulted in local, state and federal courts, and even the Supreme Court, which on Friday refused to hear a lawsuit promoted by Texas and supported by more than 120 Republican officials.

Indirect voting

With the start of the Electoral College process, Biden will protect the outcome of the ballot. When Americans voted, they actually voted for a list of voters appointed by the political parties of their state which agree to support the candidate of that party. In other words, the officially recognized result will be that of the Electoral College votes, distributed proportionately by population among the country’s 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

In the election of Biden won 306 delegates (above the minimum of 270 needed to reach the White House), while Trump got 232 out of a total of 538. The Democrat also passed it by around 7 million votes.

This process is the one that will be carried out on Monday by the voters of each state: they must say who they will vote for. If the US Constitution considers the case of “unfaithful voters” in some states, given Biden’s margin of advantage and judicial rejections of fraud, it is difficult today to think of any unexpected surprises that could reverse the result. . Friday’s court ruling against Trump also lowered expectations from large constituencies that they would turn in favor of the Republican.

But Trump launched on Sunday a threat veiled by Twitter: “The main states that have faced massive electoral fraud, what are they all, they cannot legally certify those votes as complete and correct without committing a severely punishable crime, ”he wrote.

Once the count has been made, the result will be sent to the President of the Senate in Washington, a position held by Vice President Mike Pence, to confirm the result on January 6, a date which seems very distant today but which sounded consistent in the past. . which was established, when the votes they traveled by cart from all over the country.

Later on January 20 Biden’s inauguration ceremony will be held as the 46th President of the United States, along with Vice Kamala Harris.

Congress, the last fight

Some Republicans may try to block the process in Congress, at least to resolve their position. At the forefront of the move, according to the New York Times, is Republican Congressman Mo Books of Alabama, who plans to discuss the results of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin. This Sunday he tweeted: “Congress is the last referee on who wins the presidential elections, not the Supreme Court ”. But this would only be a declarative maneuver because for any action of this type to succeed, it would be necessary majority approval of the House of Representatives, which is in the hands of the Democrats.

In an unprecedented case in the country’s history, Trump has not yet recognized He beats her and promises to keep fighting, though his weapons are getting thinner and thinner. “The United States runs the risk of having an illegitimate president. But the battle is not over yet, ”he said. “What happened to this country is like we’re third world,” he said in an interview with Fox and insisted there was a fraud. When asked if he would attend Biden’s nomination as president, he said he didn’t want to talk about it.

With his strategy of not acknowledging defeat, Trump seeks don’t assume yourself as a loser (something he hates) and position himself for a possible presidential candidacy in 2024. In the meantime, he is raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the legal battle or his future plans.

Beyond the legal rejections, the idea that there was fraud has gained ground among 70% of its supporters who are still enthusiastic. This Saturday in Washington there was a concentration of Trumpists where activists from the far-right group appeared Proud boys and that at nightfall, they found themselves in clashes with anti-fascist groups, with a balance of four stabbed wounded and dozens arrested.

Despite the fact that Trump has won the support of a large part of the party in his denunciations, there are already several Republican voices within him who are urging Trump to turn the page and acknowledge his defeat. The senator of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, estimated this weekend that the magnate did not have the right “to take the courts with lawsuits. misleading and without proof“. “The electoral process will be over on Monday if voters vote for Joe Biden, and I hope they will,” Alexander said.

Many Trump lawmakers have said Biden’s triumph was only declared by the media (which reported the official results) and therefore did not acknowledge it. If the legal offensive is lost and, as expected, the electoral college ends up electing Biden, it will not have too many arguments not to condemn the “game over”.

Washington correspondent