Electoral College: Biden affirmed president-elect as California electors push him over 270 votes

We’re closing today’s live coverage of Electoral College results and reactions.

Stay tuned with The Independent.

From Hillary Clinton’s push to abolish the electoral college moments after casting New York’s first vote from it, to Senator Ed Markey’s call for a popular vote win to signal the presidential election victory, officials have renewed calls to abolish the Electoral College as states convene across the US to finalise Joe Biden’s victory.

The calls follow a National Popular Vote movement, including 15 states and the District of Columbia, which encompasses 196 electoral votes of a needed 270.

Washington correspondent Griffin Connolly has more on Paul Mitchell, who dropped the GOP after Trump’s election conspiracies caused "long-term harm to our democracy.”

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer received a standing ovation at the state’s capitol as the Electoral College convened to cast definitive votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Following repeat attacks from the president and far-right demonstrators, along with an alleged security threat against electors and lawmakers on Monday, the governor declared "the people have spoken.”

“It was a safe, fair and secure election,” she said after taking the podium. “It was the kind of election our founding fathers envisioned when they created this democracy and built this country.”

Attorney General William Barr is leaving the administration, Trump announced minutes after California’s Electoral College cast its definitive votes ensuring Biden’s victory.

And that’s it. California’s presidential electors officially made Joe Biden the president-elect, casting the state’s 55 Electoral College votes for the former vice president.

Washington chief John T Bennett has the latest:

Joe Biden’s victory has effectively been sealed, with 247 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. Next up to cast EC ballots is California – with 55 more going to the president-elect.

California’s votes, plus four more from Hawaii, the last state to cast its electoral votes, puts Biden at 306. (He needs 270 to win.)

Joe Biden will address the nation at 7.30pm EST on 14 December following the convention of Electoral College electors casting definitive votes for the president-elect.

In excerpts from prepared remarks shared by the transition team, Mr Biden says “in America, politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them.”

“The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago,” he is expected to say. “And we now know that nothing – not even a pandemic or an abuse of power – can extinguish that flame.”

He’s also expected to return to his message of national unity, declaring himself a president “for all Americans” as the nation prepares for the “urgent work in front of all of us.”

“Getting the pandemic under control to getting the nation vaccinated against this virus,” he says in prepared remarks. “Delivering immediate economic help so badly needed by so many Americans who are hurting today – and then building our economy back better than ever.”

A new CNN report says a Michigan Republican has changed his part affiliation, citing his apparent disapproval over the president’s efforts to overturn his electoral defeat - and the party’s complicity:

Officials were forced to block GOP electors from causing a spectacle within the Michigan State Capitol: