Election disputes must be resolved by December 8, and the meeting of electors takes place on December 14.
As President Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was “rigged,” time is running out for his legal team to produce any evidence of widespread fraud, which experts have concluded again and again and again does not exist.
Soon after news outlets called the race for Joe Biden on November 7, the Trump campaign pointed out that states had not yet certified their results. Each state has its own deadline for when election results must be certified, and those deadlines are fast approaching. As of Friday, the certification deadline had already passed for at least six states, according to a running list by the website Ballotpedia. Several more deadlines are coming up this week, including:
- Monday, November 16: Virginia
- Tuesday, November 17: Florida
- Wednesday, November 18: Massachusetts, Idaho, Arkansas
- Friday, November 20: North Dakota, Georgia
Additional certification deadlines for key battleground states are as follows:
- Monday, November 23: Pennsylvania, Michigan
- Monday, November 30: Arizona
You can check out the full list of states here.
In the Hands of the Electoral College
Once all states have certified their results, the presidential electors take over, ultimately meeting in their states and voting for their state’s choice for president. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, these are the key dates to watch for in 2020:
- Tuesday, December 8: This is the date by which all conflicts—including court cases and recounts—must be resolved. Pay attention Trump team.
- Monday, December 14: Voting day! This is the day that the members of the Electoral College cast their ballots for president and vice president. Copies of the ballots are
- then sent to key people including the vice president (in his role as president of the Senate), secretary of state, and district judges in the districts where the electors meet.
- Wednesday, December 23: All elector ballots must be received by this day.
- Wednesday, January 6: Congress meets and the ballots are counted.
- Wednesday, January 20: The president-elect is sworn in as the next president of the United States.
You can check out the full list of dates on the NCSL website.
