Wisconsin, Arizona confirm Biden win

The US states of Arizona and Wisconsin finalized vote counting in the 2020 presidential election on Monday, officially confirming President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of both states.

Biden won the southwestern state of Arizona by a razor-thin margin of just over 10,000 votes. He became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1996, and only the second Democrat in 70 years, to take the usually reliable Republican stronghold.

In the upper-Midwest state of Wisconsin, election officials confirmed Biden's victory following a recount in two counties, which ended up adding to Biden's 20,600-vote margin of victory. 

Incumbent US President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden, making baseless claims of election fraud that have not succeeded in US state and federal courts.

Read more: Trump says he will leave office if Electoral College votes for Biden

Trump's Wisconsin recount falls flat 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has allowed the Trump campaign five days to file a lawsuit attempting to overturn the results by disqualifying around 238,000 ballots. Trump's legal team has claimed, without evidence, the ballots were subject to fraud. 

Trump paid $3 million (€2.5 million) for recounts in Wisconsin's Dane and Milwaukee counties, the two largest Democratic counties in the state. 

"There's no basis at all for any assertion that there was widespread fraud that would have affected the results,'' Wisconsin's Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement Monday. 

Later Monday, Wisconsin's governor, Democrat Tony Evers, signed the "Certificate of Ascertainment," confirming Biden won Wisconsin's slate of 10 electoral votes to be submitted to the Electoral College, which will meet on December 14. 

This is a procedural step that usually draws little attention. 

"Today I carried out my duty to certify the November 3rd election,'' Evers said in a statement, while thanking election workers for ensuring a "safe, fair, and efficient election."

 

Read more: US election: What happens next with Joe Biden's transition to the White House?

Arizona vote 'fair and transparent'

In Arizona, Trump accused election officials of "total election corruption" as his lawyers met with several Republican lawmakers to argue without evidence that the election was fraudulent. 

In announcing Biden's victory, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said the election was "conducted with transparency, accuracy and fairness ... despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary."

In US presidential elections, states often take until long after election day to officially certify vote counts. The Trump campaign's allegations of voter fraud have drawn a close spotlight on the count in the 2020 election. 

President-elect Biden has proceeded with thetransition process, despite Trump's refusal to concede and attempt to overturn the election results. 

wmr/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters)