Dec. 1 (UPI) — Election results in Wisconsin and Arizona were certified on Monday, making official Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the states.
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers declared the certification of the state’s votes Monday evening after Ann Jacobs, the chairwoman of the Wisconsin Election Commission, announced the completion of the state’s canvass and declared Biden the winner of its 10 electoral votes.
“Today, I carried out my duty to certify the Nov. 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,” Evers declared via Twitter.
Final election results show Biden won 1,630,866 votes to Trump’s 1,610,184.
On Sunday, a recount in two counties, requested and funded by the Trump campaign, was completed and increased the former vice president’s lead by 87 votes.
Hours earlier on Monday, Arizona’s election results were certified in Phoenix’s historic old state Capitol building by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
The results marked the second time a Democrat has won the state of Arizona in a presidential contest in 70 years.
“The votes have been tabulated, all 15 counties have certified their results,” said Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who praised local election officials.
“If you recall, there was talk about not having Election Day voting, some suggested canceling it,” Ducey said Monday at the ceremony attended by Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.
“In Arizona, we said no thank you. We are going to have Election Day. This is America and no voter should be disenfranchised. Thanks to the hard work of our election workers, we preserved Election Day,” Ducey added.
Final vote totals showed Biden won by 10,457 votes, or 0.3% of the nearly 3.4 million ballots cast in Arizona.
Ducey also signed official documents declaring Democrat Mark Kelly the new U.S. Senator-elect. Kelly defeated incumbent Republican Martha McSally by more than 78,800 votes in a special election. McSally was appointed to fill the term of the late Sen. John McCain, who died in August 2018.
Kelly will be sworn in on Wednesday, joining Sen. Kyrsten Sinema as the second Democratic U.S. senator in the formerly red state.
Eleven electors from the Democratic party and the 10 from Wisconsin will meet officially on Dec. 14 to pledge their states’ electoral votes for Biden.
Meanwhile elsewhere in Phoenix, presidential lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a group of Republican Arizona state lawmakers announced they were holding a rally at a downtown hotel to challenge the results of the election and allege fraud.
State Rep. Mark Finchem who represents Oro Valley announced Friday he would chair a “fact-finding hearing” even though the state legislature is not in session.
And late Monday, Trump continued to tweet out widely discredited claims of voter fraud and corruption in Arizona.
The Trump campaign dropped its election lawsuit in Arizona in mid-November after arguing that the integrity of the Nov. 3 election was compromised by machines that did not accurately tally “overvotes.”
Other suits challenging the Arizona ballot count have been tossed out by local and superior court judges.
Biden has had results certified in several battleground states vital to his winning 306 electoral votes on Nov. 3 to Trump’s 232. Biden also won the popular vote by almost 6 million ballots cast.
Last week, election officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Minnesota, and Michigan all certified their state vote tallies, giving Biden a winning combination of electoral votes.
