The US election's 'safe harbor' deadline is here. What does that mean for Biden?

If states have resolved disputes, their electoral votes now qualify as conclusive' - but Republicans could still shake voter confidence

While Donald Trump continues to falsely insist he won the 2020 race, Tuesday marks an important deadline further cementing that Joe Biden will be inaugurated as America's 46th president on 20 January.

This year, 8 December is the so-called safe harbor" deadline, which federal law says must fall six days before electors meet across the country to cast their votes for president. The statute says that as long as states use existing state law to resolve disputes about electors by the deadline, the votes cast by those electors will be conclusive". It is meant to act as a safeguard so that Congress, which will count the electoral votes on 6 January, can't second-guess or overturn the election results.