President Donald Trump’s multistate legal challenges to contest last month’s presidential election hit a deadline Tuesday.
Dec. 8, known as the “safe harbor” deadline after a presidential election, is when states need to resolve any outstanding ballot controversies and certify their election results. The safe harbor deadline ensures that Congress accepts a state’s electoral votes when they are counted in Washington early next month.
As of midday Tuesday, all states but Wisconsin had formally certified their electoral votes to the federal government, The Associated Press reported. It’s one of several steps in the process leading to the anticipated formal election of President-elect Joe Biden as the nation’s 46th commander-in-chief.
What is ‘safe harbor’ deadline?
According to federal law, electors, who make up the Electoral College, will cast their votes for the president and vice-president on the “first Monday after the second Wednesday in December.” That will be Dec. 14 this year.
Political parties in each state have different ways of nominating and selecting their own party-loyal electors, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
To ensure electors are prepared to cast their vote Monday, the law says that “final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such state, by judicial or other methods or procedures, and such determination shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors.”
“It’s called a safe harbor provision because it’s a kind of insurance policy by which a state can insulate its electoral votes against challenges in Congress by finishing up certification of the results and any state court legal challenges by the deadline, which this year is Tuesday,” according to the AP.
“What federal law requires is that if a state has completed its postelection certification by Dec. 8, Congress is required to accept those results,” William & Mary law school professor Rebecca Green told the AP.
The Supreme Court of the United States referred to the safe harbor deadline in its ruling that then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush had won the 2000 presidential election after weeks of recounts and legal challenges over the Florida by Vice President Al Gore, according to Politico.
“In light of the inevitable legal challenges and ensuing appeals to the Supreme Court of Florida and petitions for certiorari to this court, the entire recounting process could not possibly be completed by that date,” the justices wrote.
Trump’s legal challenges attempting to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election have have been mostly dismissed in state and federal courts, the AP reported.
Attorney General William Barr said last week that the Department of Justice had not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud which would change November’s results.
According to Politico, “judges and lawyers for both sides have also treated the safe-harbor deadline as a cause for urgency” and that Trump has mostly changed his strategy from legal to political. The president is using his political influence “to pressure Republican allies in state houses and Congress to subvert Biden’s victory,” wrote Politico.
Trump called Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler twice this week to ask the high-ranking state Republican to reverse Biden’s victory there by rejecting that state’s slate of electors, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported. The president has also sought to persuade Republicans in Michigan and Georgia for their support in subverting election results in those key swing states.
The Electoral College vote
With their electors selected, the 49 states that have already met the deadline are projected to elect Biden when they vote Monday.
The AP Electoral College projection map shows Biden winning with a commanding lead over the one-term incumbent president. Without Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes hypothetically in the balance, Biden leads Trump 296-232.
The expected outcome of Monday’s vote is 306-232 — with Biden projected to win Wisconsin.
According to NPR, it’s possible that “faithless electors” could vote for a different candidate than pledged — which has happened — but not enough to throw the projected results of the 2020 presidential election.
What’s next
Dec. 14: Electoral College electors vote from their states.
Jan. 6, 2021: A joint session of Congress counts the electoral votes and declares a winner.
Jan. 20, 2021: The 46th president of the United States is sworn into office.