California certified its electors for the 2020 election on Friday, officially giving Joseph R. Biden Jr. more than the 270 pledged electors needed to become president.
Electors will meet in each state on Dec. 14 to cast their votes.
The results reported right after the presidential election are reliable, but they are not official. In the weeks since Election Day, officials in every state have been verifying the vote tallies, a process called certification.
This starts at the county or municipal level, and then a state official or board must review the local certifications and certify the statewide totals. In presidential races, if states certify their results by the so-called safe harbor deadline — this year, it’s Dec. 8 — those results are largely insulated from further challenges.
The Trump campaign’s unsuccessful strategy was to try to delay the certification processes in the key battleground states that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. won. As of Nov. 30, all of those states had certified their results.
Source: The New York Times
