U.S. reaches election safe harbour deadline to ensure results

The U.S. presidential election on Tuesday reached a key milestone, when the so-called safe harbour deadline arrived, which will effectively lock in the states’ votes and largely prevent Congress from getting involved.

In the U.S. system, voting for president is somewhat indirect. Each state is allotted a certain number of electoral votes, based on population size.

The winner of the presidential election is the candidate who reaches 270 electoral votes in the Electoral College.

The safe harbour deadline comes 35 days after Election Day and allows time for any disputes to be settled.

If any state certifies its result by the deadline, Congress cannot later intervene to overturn the decision of voters in those states.

This then sets up the key event next week, when the Electoral College vote takes place.

This normally quiet process has gained attention this year as President, Donald Trump has refused to concede that he lost the election and is fighting legal battles in a number of states to overturn the result for president-elect Joe Biden.

There was some concern Trump could try to prevent states from certifying their votes on time, though this has not materialised, despite immense pressure from the president on some Republican officials in key swing states won by Biden.