“Safe harbor” day is a deadline, set by a U.S. law from 1887, for states to certify the results of the presidential election. Meeting the deadline is not mandatory but it provides assurance that a state’s results will not be second-guessed by Congress.
The safe harbor date falls six days before the meeting of the Electoral College, in which slates of “electors” formally select the presidential nominee who won the popular vote in their home states. A candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to capture the presidency. Biden has amassed 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
This year, the safe harbor date falls on Dec. 8.
Once that date passes, Trump can still press on with lawsuits seeking to overturn Biden’s victory.
But the legal campaign becomes even more difficult, since judges will likely say it is too late to overturn the results.