Today Is Donald Trump's Last Chance to Reverse the Election Results

Amid his campaign's ongoing legal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump now has just hours left to make his case. Tuesday, Dec. 8 marks the president's last chance to reverse the election results before the "safe harbor provision" goes into effect, cementing the certification of 279 electoral college votes for President-elect Joe Biden and dashing hopes of Congress considering the election undecided and deciding the election itself.

The safe harbor provision is a federal law noting that the "safe harbor period" expires six days before electors meet to decide the winner of presidential elections. Under federal law, electors are set to cast their votes "on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December," or Dec. 14 this year, meaning the safe harbor period expires on Dec. 8, according to Forbes. The safe harbor provision declares that for all states that have certified their election results by this time, those certifications "shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution."

The provision would effectively close the window for Congress to decide the election itself. Congress is capable of deciding an election if it considers the election undecided, which, in this case, could be the result of it finding the Trump campaign's ongoing claims of widespread voter fraud to hold truth. In such a scenario, Congress could determine that neither Trump nor Biden would have a majority of the Electoral College votes, and the House of Representatives would then choose the next president. That would be favorable for Trump, because while the House is majority Democratic, under the Constitution, every state has the same voting power in the House for choosing the president. This would give Republicans the upper hand, as majority Democratic states, such as California, would get just one vote, the same as low-population states like North Dakota. Given that Republicans represent the majority of states, their votes would outnumber their Democratic counterparts, making Trump the likely winner.

However, the chances of this happening are now all but dashed, and Biden is well on his way to securing victory. Biden is projected to secure a total of 306 electoral votes to Trump's projected 232. When the safe harbor period expires, 279 of those votes will already be "conclusive." Biden surpassed the 270 necessary votes when the state of California on Saturday officially certified its election results, appointing 55 electors pledged to vote for Biden.