Biden secures presidency; calls on nation to 'turn the page' on election

President-elect Joe Biden sought to unite the fractured country in a speech on Monday night, asking Americans to "turn the page" on the divisive election.

"In America, politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them," Biden said. "The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic or an abuse of power — can extinguish that flame."

Across the country, the 538 electors cast their votes Monday for Biden and President Donald Trump based on the popular votes in their states. 

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received 306 electoral votes, while Trump got 232. The electoral votes will then be counted at a special joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 before Biden and Harris are inaugurated Jan. 20.

On Monday, following the Biden topping the 270 electoral votes, several Republicans began to acknowledge that Trump lost. 

Here in Delaware, the state's three electors included John Daniello, Marie Mayor and Marla Blunt-Carter, who one year ago was not able to write following a stroke. On Monday, she signed her name nine times on the documents that certified the election. 

A POWERFUL MOMENT:She once lost the ability to write after a stroke. Today, she signed to certify Biden's win

Biden in his speech compared his results to that of Trump’s in 2016, when the president also received 306 electoral votes. At the time, Trump called his win a “landslide.” Biden noted he exceeded Trump’s 2016 margin of victory in several states. 

"By his own standards these numbers represented a clear victory then and I respectfully suggest they do so now,” Biden said.

He denounced the president’s attacks on the voting process and called the threats received by election officials as “unconscionable.” Some states did not cast their ballots at their respective statehouses due to safety concerns. 

DELAWARE'S OWN:We want to hear your personal stories about Joe Biden

This afternoon, as the Electoral College was affirming its votes for Biden, the president tweeted false information about election fraud. Despite many efforts, including a lawsuit rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, the legal efforts by Trump’s legal team failed to gain any traction. 

“The (Supreme Court) sent a clear signal to President Trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy," Biden said. 

He called for the country to now focus on the “urgent work in front of us all” as the United States hit a grim milestone of 300,000 COVID-19 related deaths on Monday, just as thousands of vaccines were being shipped across the country. 

"May this moment,” Biden said, “give us the strength to rebuild this house of ours upon a rock that can never be washed away.”

Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 324-2386 or at mnewman@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MereNewman.