JOE BIDEN'S VICTORY IN ARIZONA EXPANDED HIS ELECTORAL VOTE MARGIN OVER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, PLACING ANY HOPES OF TRUMP REVERSING THE OUTCOME THROUGH THE COURTS EVEN FURTHER OUT OF REACH.
Michigan judge blocks bid to halt vote certification
REHOBOTH BEACH • U.S. president-elect Joe Biden's victory in the battleground state of Arizona expanded his electoral vote margin over President Donald Trump, placing any hopes of Trump reversing the outcome through the courts or recounts even further out of reach.
Biden was projected to win Arizona and its 11 electoral votes on Thursday after more than a week of vote counting from the Nov. 3 election, Edison Research said. He becomes only the second Democratic presidential candidate in seven decades to win the traditionally Republican state.
Biden also defeated President Donald Trump in the state of Georgia, while Trump won North Carolina, Edison Research projected on Friday as it called the final two states in the U.S. presidential race.
Edison Research said Biden had won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232. Biden had surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to capture the presidency on Saturday.
Although the national popular vote does not determine the election outcome, Biden is winning that by more than 5.3 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points. His share of the popular vote is now up to 50.8 per cent, slightly higher than Ronald Reagan's share of the vote in 1980 when he defeated Jimmy Carter.
Trump, a Republican, has claimed without evidence that he was cheated by widespread election fraud and has refused to concede. State election officials report no serious irregularities, and several of his legal challenges have failed in court.
To win a second term, Trump would need to overturn Biden's lead in at least three states, but he has so far failed to produce evidence that he could do so in any of them. States face a Dec. 8 “safe harbour” deadline to certify their elections and choose electors for the Electoral College, which will officially select the new president on Dec. 14.
In Michigan, the state court rejected on Friday a request by Trump supporters to block the certification of votes and appoint an independent auditor in Detroit, which went heavily in favour of Biden.
“It would be an unprecedented exercise of judicial activism for this Court to stop the certification process of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers,” wrote Timothy Kenny, chief judge of the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan, referring to the county that includes Detroit.
The lawsuit alleged fraud and voting irregularities, which Wayne County has denied.
The judge rejected those allegations, writing: “Plaintiffs' interpretation of events is incorrect and not credible.”
On Wednesday, the Trump campaign filed a similar lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan. Biden's legal advisers have dismissed the Trump lawsuits as political theatre.
Federal election security officials have found no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, “or was in any way compromised,” two security groups said in a statement released on
Thursday by the lead U. S. cybersecurity agency. While Republicans in the United States have questioned the outcome, U.S.
allies around the world have recognized Biden's victory since Saturday. Rival China on Friday became the latest country to congratulate Biden, leaving Russia and Mexico as conspicuous holdouts.
Trump's refusal to accept defeat has stalled the official transition. The federal agency that releases funding to an incoming president-elect, the General Services Administration, has not yet recognized Biden's victory, denying him access to federal office space and resources.
(JOE BIDEN) IS GOING TO HAVE A VERY, VERY BUSY DAY ONE.
Biden's pick for White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, told MSNBC on Thursday that starting the transition is particularly crucial now, as the Biden administration will inherit a coronavirus vaccination campaign as soon as he takes office.
Regardless of the impediments, Biden will sign a “stack” of executive orders and send high-priority legislation to Congress on his first day in office, Klain said.
“He is going to have a very, very busy Day One,” Klain said, citing a return the to Paris Accord on climate change, immigration reform, strengthening the “Obamacare” health- care law and environmental protection as issues Biden would address on Jan. 20.
Most Republicans have publicly said Trump has a right to pursue court challenges and declined to recognize Biden as the winner. But more signs of dissent began emerging on Thursday.
Party figures such as Ohio Governor Mike Dewine, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and Karl Rove, a top adviser to former president George W. Bush, said Biden should be treated as the president-elect.