US Elections 2020: Pennsylvania and Michigan set to certify their results

US Correspondent Simon Marks says over the weekend they saw many senior Republicans saying it's time to get off the Trump train.

Key states are set to certify the vote totals and making their results official this week. President Donald Trump has declined to concede the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Michigan and Pennsylvania are set to do so Monday, and Nevada will on Tuesday. Arizona and Wisconsin have certification deadlines next week.

Biden is ahead by more than 155,000 votes in Michigan, by more than 81,000 in Pennsylvania and by more than 33,000 in Nevada.

John Perlman speaks to US correspondent Simon Marks for more on this.

Certification is when the numbers are presented to lawmakers. The numbers that have been counted and tabulated and lawmakers say YES, absolutely that was the result of this election and state. Normally it is completely a rubberstamp process and they approve the results and that determines then the number of electoral college delegates from each state that will end up meeting here with electoral college delegates from all over the country on December the 14th to determine precisely how they will all vote.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

Will they vote for Joe Biden as we presume they will based on what's going to take place over the next few hours in Pennsylvania and Michigan or in states that voted for Donald Trump and they then show up in December and vote for Donald Trump? So we know that there are some last-minute shenanigans taking place yet again in both Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

In Michigan, one Republican is expected to vote against certification, we don't know about the others. If certification were to be blocked in Michigan then everything will head into the courts there But Joe Biden is ahead by more than 150,000 votes so there is no possible recount that could overturn that kind of an advantage.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

In Pennsylvania, there are some legal efforts by some Republicans to block the certification of election results there in favour of Joe Biden. All of these legal attempts that the Trump campaign has launched over a couple of weeks have resulted in overwhelming losses. They have lost cases now in 34 separate courtrooms across the country.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

Can an elector go rogue?

They can. If they do that they can be no less faithless electors. Let's assume in the state of Florida, for example, with its 29 votes in the electoral college, which voted for Donald Trump, let's say one of those electors comes to Washington next and says 'I actually don't think Donald Trump won, I think Joe Biden did and I'm gonna give my vote to Joe Biden,' at that point he or she would be a faithless elector. There is nothing in law to prevent them from doing that but there is a Supreme Court decision that says that states can penalise them for going rogue when they then get back home. Thre is no great tradition of faithless electors turning turtle once they come to Washington.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

Over the weekend we saw so many senior Republicans finally saying's time to get off the Trump train.

Simon Marks, US Correspondent

Listen below for the full interview ...

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