It seems to have taken an age, however Joe Biden is officially the president-elect. Yesterday, all 538 electors met in their respective states to cast their votes for president based on the election results that were recently certified by all 50 states. With California's 55 electoral votes, Biden was over the 270-threshold needed to win. The California victory pushed Biden and Harris' electoral tally to 302 vs 232 for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. After Hawaii, the last state to cast its ballots, voted, Biden solidified his win at 306 votes to Trump's 232.
Hours after the Electoral College officially sealed Biden's victory, the president-elect called the result ‘honest, free and fair’, adding that the attacks by Trump to overturn the election an ‘abuse of power’. In his speech he vowed to be ‘a president for all Americans’ and that his priority was to get the pandemic under control and deliver economic help.
In the evening address he said ‘In America, politicians don't take power — the people grant it to them," adding ‘The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing, not even a pandemic — or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame’. ‘In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden added. ‘We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal’.