Electoral College Vote Officially Affirms Biden’s Victory

Yet for all of Mr. Trump’s threats and challenges, the voting was an affirmation of the enduring American institution of free and fair elections. In state after state, party leaders of national acclaim joined with local grass-roots delegates to certify Mr. Biden, in the manner prescribed in the Constitution but with the pandemic-era additions of masks and social distancing.

In Albany, New York, Bill and Hillary Clinton cast their paper votes in mahogany boxes in a mostly empty statehouse chamber alongside 27 other electors including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo; at the Capitol building in Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers presided over the vote as the state’s 10 delegates, in business attire, sat several feet apart in leather-backed chairs and handed their votes over to a roving aide; Vermont’s three delegates filled their paperwork out in hearty winter dress in Montpelier.

“It’s not just out of tradition but to show folks, especially now more than ever, our system works,” Gov. Chris Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire, said before the vote in his state.

Though the meeting of the Electoral College is an important milestone in the democratic process, it is rarely one that attracts outsize attention and becomes a major political event. But as the president continued his relentless campaign to subvert the election, the vote on Monday had loomed as an important deadline, promising to bring some sense of finality to one of the most challenging elections in generations.

Despite his definitive defeat in the Electoral College vote, Mr. Trump has remained defiant. Over the weekend, he attacked the Supreme Court for rejecting a challenge to the election results and continued to make baseless accusations on Twitter about voter fraud. He has shown no sign that he intends to concede the election.

The increasingly caustic language from the president has kept tensions high throughout the country, as protests in Washington on Saturday devolved into violence. Anticipating more demonstrations, some states provided security for the voting sites, and though large-scale protests never materialized, some election officials spoke out against the rhetoric.

The baseless accusations of misconduct and fraud have cast “an artificial shadow” over the Electoral College vote, Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state in Arizona, said as she opened the meeting of electors in her state. “And this fabrication of misdeed leveled against everyone, from poll workers to me and my office, has led to threats of violence against me, my office and those in this room today.”