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On Saturday, Democratic nominee Joe Biden was named President¬elect of the United States after securing 270 Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential election. Biden, the former vice president, and his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, are slated to take office on January 20th, 2021. Biden was victorious in his campaign for the White House on the third attempt, having previously run for president in 1988 and 2008. His last stint in public office was as President Barack Obama's vice president from 2008 - 2016 and served before that as a U.S. Senator from Delaware. Biden officially surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed on Saturday following several days of continuing vote tabulations when he was projected to be the winner in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania. Analysts had anticipated that an outcome in the presidential race might not be known on Election Day itself, considering a large number of mail-in ballots this year because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Overall, the 2020 election had the highest voter turnout in over a century, with both candidates getting over 70 million votes. President-elect margins in many states and races- both at the presidential and congressional level- were a lot narrower than had been predicted. In sharp contrast from typical presidential tradition, President Trump has yet to make a concession speech or contact the new president-elect. The race has been called in Biden's favor by multiple news and media outlets, and Trump trails by a range of 10,000 to 146,000 votes in even the closest margin states like Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The president has filed lawsuits challenging votes in several states and has requested a recount in Wisconsin. As mentioned, Trump is behind Biden by tens to hundreds of thousands in these places, and at best, recounts only change the margin by a few hundred votes - if any. Trump has also not presented viable or substantiated evidence to back his "election fraud" claims, and therefore legal experts contend that any challenges will not hold merit in a court of law. Free and fair elections, and the seamless transition of power, are fundamental aspects of American democracy, and as such, analysts lament the president's reaction and his attempts to undermine the electoral process.
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