World News: OnPolitics: Turns out Biden does have enough votes

Monday, December 14

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, to announce his health care team.

OnPolitics: Biden gets enough Electoral College votes, like officially

Monday was a big day for President-elect Joe Biden. He officially got enough Electoral College votes to make this thing official. Plus, Barr is out.

President-elect Joe Biden has once again solidified his win in the 2020 election, passing the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to become president.

California's 55 electoral votes pushed Biden over the line after the state's electors cast their votes at 5:30 p.m. EST.

States held Electoral College meetings across the nation Monday, where electors voted for the candidate who won their respective state.

"In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden will say during remarks at 7:30 p.m., according to excerpts released by his transition team. "We the People voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal."

William Barr is leaving

Attorney General William Barr, who has served as President Donald Trump's most effective shield and advocate for broad presidential authority, will be leaving the administration.

Trump announced the news of Barr's departure Monday evening on Twitter.

Trump lauded his attorney general as "a man of unbelievable credibility and courage" just months ago, but turned on Barr after he declared there was no widespread evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and resisted Trump's public pressure to prosecute President-elect Joe Biden and other former Obama administration officials on baseless claims of corruption and the surveillance of the 2016 race.

Fake electors in Arizona

In another sign of the lingering unrest over President Donald Trump's election loss, an Arizona group sent the National Archives in Washington, D.C., notarized documents last week intended to deliver, wrongly, the state's 11 electoral votes for him.

Copies of the documents obtained by The Arizona Republic show a group that claimed to represent the "sovereign citizens of the Great State of Arizona" submitted signed papers casting votes for what they want: a second term for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

The 11 electors actually chosen by Arizona voters last month — meeting in an unpublicized location because of security concerns over their task — cast their votes Monday for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, formalizing the Democrats' victory nationally and in the state.

Discover more with our newsletters: Get the latest headlines, things to do and more in your inbox. Sign up here.