Democrat Joe Biden has won the state-by-state Electoral College vote that formally determines the US presidency, all but ending President Donald Trump's floundering campaign to overturn his loss in the 3 November election.
California, the most populous state, delivered its 55 electoral votes to Biden tonight, officially putting the former vice president over the 270 votes needed to secure the White House. Based on November's results, Mr Biden earned 306 Electoral College votes to the Republican Trump's 232.
Earlier in the day, electors in several major battleground states where Mr Trump has unsuccessfully sought to reverse the outcome - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - also voted for Mr Biden, who is set to take office on 20 January alongside running mate Kamala Harris.
Traditionally a formality, the Electoral College vote assumed outsized significance because of Mr Trump's unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud.
There was next to no chance that voting would negate Mr Biden's victory and, with Mr Trump's legal campaign to reverse the results floundering, the president's hopes of clinging to power will rest with a special meeting of the US Congress on 6 January where the odds against him are as good as insurmountable.
Mr Biden, 78, is due to make a speech later tonight calling on Americans to "turn the page" following the Electoral College vote.
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"The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago," he is expected to say, according to excerpts released by his transition team.
"And we now know that nothing - not even a pandemic - or an abuse of power - can extinguish that flame."
Once in office, Mr Biden faces the challenging task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, reviving the US economy and rebuilding relations frayed with US allies abroad by Mr Trump's "America First" policies.
In Arizona, at the beginning of the electors' meeting there, the state's Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, said Mr Trump's claims of fraud had "led to threats of violence against me, my office, and those in this room today," echoing similar reports of threats and intimidation in other states.
"While there will be those who are upset their candidate didn't win, it is patently un-American and unacceptable that today's event should be anything less than an honored tradition held with pride and in celebration," Ms Hobbs said.
Under a complicated system dating back to the 1780s, a candidate becomes US president not by winning a majority of the popular vote but through the Electoral College system, which allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on the size of their population.
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Electors are typically party loyalists who represent the winning candidate in their state, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate some of their Electoral College votes based on which candidate won each of the states' congressional districts.
While there are sometimes a handful of "rogue" electors who vote for someone other than the winner of their state's popular vote, the vast majority rubber-stamp the results.
Mr Trump said late last month he would leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Mr Biden, but has since pressed on with his unprecedented campaign to overturn his defeat, filing without success numerous lawsuits challenging state vote counts.
Today he repeated a series of unsupported claims of electoral fraud.
"Swing States that have found massive VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete & correct without committing a severely punishable crime," he wrote on Twitter.
Swing States that have found massive VOTER FRAUD, which is all of them, CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY these votes as complete & correct without committing a severely punishable crime. Everybody knows that dead people, below age people, illegal immigrants, fake signatures, prisoners,....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2020
A group of Trump supporters called on Facebook for protests all day outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, one of the hardest-fought states where Mr Trump lost.
However by early afternoon only a handful had gathered, including Bob Ray, 66, a retired construction worker. He held a sign that read: "order a forensic audit," "save America" and "stop communism".
Mr Trump has called on Republican state legislators to appoint their own electors, essentially ignoring the will of the voters. State politicians have largely dismissed the idea.
"I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to win more than me," Lee Chatfield, Republican speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, said in a statement. "But I love our republic, too. I can't fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump."
Mr Trump's sole remaining gambit will be to persuade Congress not to certify the count on 6 January.
Any attempt to block a state's results, and thus change the overall US tally, must earn majority approval from both chambers of Congress that day.
Democrats control the House of Representatives, while enough Republicans in the Senate have acknowledged Mr Biden's victory to ensure any challenge would likely fail.
In 2016, Mr Trump won the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.
The formal vote earned extra attention when some Democratic activists called for electors to "go rogue" against Mr Trump.
In the end, seven electors broke ranks, an unusually high number but still far too few to sway the outcome.
Trump announces departure of Attorney General Bill Barr
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said that Attorney General William Barr will be leaving his job just before Christmas and Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosenwill become acting attorney general.
Mr Barr, in a letter to President Trump seen by Reuters, said he would leave his post on 23 December.
The letter came shortly after Mr Barr had briefed the president about the Justice Department's review into the Trump campaign's allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. In it, Mr Barr pledged the allegations "would continue to be pursued."
Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2020
In the letter, Mr Barr also praised what he called Mr Trump's historic record, saying he had helped boost the economy, strengthen the military and curb illegal immigration.
Mr Barr's fate in the waning days of the Trump administration had been in question since he said last week that a Justice Department investigation had found no sign of major fraud in the November election, contradicting Mr Trumps false claims.
President Trump's legal team had accused Mr Barr of failing to conduct a proper inquiry.
