Arizona, Wisconsin certify Joe Biden as winner
Washington, Dec 1: Two battleground states of Arizona and Wisconsin on Monday formally certified Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as the winner.
Incumbent Donald Trump had won both the states in 2016.
In Wisconsin, Biden won by 20,700 votes against Trump, who has refused to concede the election results so far. He alleges that there were massive voters' fraud and electoral malpractice.
Certifying the result, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said, Today, I carried out my duty to certify the November 3rd election, and as required by state and federal law, I've signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The formal certification from Wisconsin came a day after the state completed the recounting of votes in two of its counties as requested by Trump.
Earlier in the day, Arizona, which traditionally has been a Republican stronghold, also certified Biden as the winner with more than 10,000 votes.
Arizona has 11 members in the Electoral College. Biden now has 306 Electoral College votes against Trump's 232.
Every Arizona voter has my thanks and should know that they can stand proud that this election was conducted with transparency, accuracy and fairness in accordance with Arizona's laws and elections procedures despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary," Arizona Governor Dough Hobbs said.
At the brief signing event to certify the election results, Hobbs said the system is strong. And that is why I have bragged on it so much.
Arizona certification came at the same time when Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani made a plea before several Republican State legislature that the lawmakers could and should throw out the election results.
They are certifying a false statement to the United States of America, Giuliani told the Republican lawmakers.
Trump has five days to challenge the certification of election results. Such total corruption. So sad for our country! Trump said in a tweet as the Arizona hearings were going on.
In another tweet, Trump said he is fighting on behalf of 74 million people who voted for him.
I'm not fighting for me, I'm fighting for the 74,000,000 million (sic) people (not including the many Trump ballots that were tossed ), a record for a sitting President, who voted for me! he said in a tweet.
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EC seeks BJP's response on Opposition charge of PM Modi violating model code
New Delhi (PTI): Taking cognisance for the first time of a model code violation allegation against a prime minister, the Election Commission on Thursday asked the BJP to respond to complaints filed by opposition parties wherein they have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of delivering a divisive and defamatory speech in Rajasthan's Banswara.
At the same time, the poll panel also asked the Congress to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against the main opposition party's president Mallikarjun Kharge and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their respective remarks.
In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the Election Commission asked him to respond by Monday to complaints filed by the Congress, CPI and CPI (ML) regarding the remarks made by Modi on April 21 in Banswara.
It also asked Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to "set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit".
Officials said it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. The Election Commission has invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold party presidents as the first step to rein in star campaigners.
It wrote a similarly-worded letter separately to the Congress president with regard to allegations levelled by the BJP against him and Gandhi.
The letters from the EC to the two-party presidents did not directly name either Modi, Gandhi or Kharge, but the representations received by it were attached to the respective letters and they contained details of allegations against the three leaders.
In its complaint to the EC, the Congress said that Modi in his speech had alleged that Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the people to Muslims and that the opposition party won't even spare the 'mangalsutra' of women.
The BJP, on the other hand, had written to EC that Gandhi levelled malafide and utterly sinister allegations against Modi during a speech in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
It also accused Kharge of violating the model code by claiming that he was not invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony due to discrimination against SCs and STs.
