‘Safe harbor’ deadline marks another step in securing Biden win. Here’s why it matters
The 2020 election’s “safe harbor” deadline is Tuesday — marking a key milestone in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump.
The Associated Press and other major news outlets projected Biden the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7. He has 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232, according to the AP. A candidate needs 270 to win. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take office on Jan. 20, 2021.
There are a number of steps between when a president-elect is projected the winner and when they take office.
It’s standard for the media to call races ahead of official results. The results available on election night — or a few days after in this year’s case — are considered preliminary until they’re certified, which typically takes up to a month.
Certification, or the verification of the outcome of an election, is typically a mundane process but has drawn more attention this year as Trump and his allies have sought to challenge the outcome in multiple battleground states despite there being no evidence of widespread election fraud.
Now, states where the challenges are active are rushing to meet the “safe harbor” deadline, NBC News reports.
What is the ‘safe harbor’ deadline?
It’s the date by which states should have finished vote recounts, resolved legal disputes and certified their results.
If a state meets the “safe harbor” deadline, federal law says its results are considered conclusive and will “govern in the counting of the electoral votes.”
States that don’t meet the “safe harbor” deadline have until Dec. 14, which is when the Electoral College votes this year, to hand in their ascertainment certificate and the names of their electors to Congress, according to the nonprofit think-tank Bipartisan Policy Center.
After the Electoral College votes, Congress counts those votes and declares an official winner when one presidential ticket reaches 270 votes. The incumbent vice president announces the winner.
The winner is then sworn in on Jan. 20, the Inauguration Day as set by the U.S. Constitution.
Why does it matter?
States have a “strong incentive” to meet the “safe harbor” deadline as doing so mostly safeguards them from further election-related challenges, The New York Times reports.
Trump’s campaign, or anyone, could still sue, but the case likely wouldn’t gain any traction with the courts.
“Once you’ve certified, you’re really supposed to be protected from litigation,” Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, told the Times. “There’s supposed to be this magic case that wraps around the state results after they certify, and we only open the case up to Congress.”
Trump’s campaign has filed numerous lawsuits to challenge the election outcomes in multiple battleground states. They have largely been unsuccessful in court.
Several states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin — have ongoing court cases and may not be able to claim “safe harbor” protections if they aren’t resolved by Tuesday, NBC News reports.
All of these states, however, have certified their results. Most recently, Georgia recertified its presidential election results Monday, upholding Biden’s victory in the state after three separate vote counts, CNN reports.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 1:21 PM with the headline "‘Safe harbor’ deadline marks another step in securing Biden win. Here’s why it matters."
