Election 2020 live updates: Joe Biden to speak with frontline health care workers battling COVID

Lita Nadebah Beck, John Fritze, Kevin Johnson, David Jackson and Sean Rossman, USA TODAY
·5 min read

USA TODAY'S coverage of the 2020 election continues this week as states prepare to finish certifying their vote counts after President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the hard-fought presidential race. President Donald Trump has yet to concede the race as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris prepare to take office in January.

Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.

Biden to meet with frontline health care workers

President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday will hold a virtual meeting with frontline health care workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden said Monday if outgoing President Donald Trump – who has refused to concede the election – continues to stonewall transition efforts, "many people may die" if the new administration is not able to coordinate on management of the pandemic.

Trump has no events on his schedule Wednesday. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will meet with transition advisers.

– Sean Rossman

Biden picks for top White House jobs draw contrast with Trump

President-elect Joe Biden signaled Tuesday he intends to draw on longtime, loyal aides with deep government experience when he enters the White House next year – breaking with the anti-establishment approach President Donald Trump embraced after his election four years ago.

With a series of personnel announcements Tuesday, the shape of the team that will occupy the West Wing after Jan. 20 came into sharper focus, with Biden turning to several aides who worked for him as vice president and others who either served President Barack Obama or have lengthy resumes from elsewhere in government.

"It’s a lot of experience," Phil Schiliro, former director of legislative affairs for Obama, said of Biden's picks, adding that they should help him get up and running quickly.

Biden's appointments, which included Steve Ricchetti, a longtime adviser and lobbyist, and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, represented a departure from many of Trump's early appointments of outsider figures to top White House jobs – from strategist Steve Bannon to son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump was limited in part because of the aggressively anti-establishment route he took to the presidency, experts said.

– John Fritze

Biden's team: Biden picks for top White House jobs draw contrast with Trump not only on policy but also style

Biden names 9 appointees: Joe Biden names 9 top White House appointees, including Rep. Cedric Richmond and campaign manager O'Malley Dillon

President-elect Joe Biden waves as he leaves the Queen Theater after receiving a briefing on national security with advisors on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.
President-elect Joe Biden waves as he leaves the Queen Theater after receiving a briefing on national security with advisors on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Trump ousts Homeland Security cyber chief Chris Krebs

The Department of Homeland Security's cyber chief, who presided over an elaborate election security effort guarding against foreign interference and fraud, was ousted by President Donald Trump on Tuesday as part of a continuing post-election purge of top national security officials.

Trump announced the dismissal in two tweets Tuesday night. Twitter flagged both tweets with labels saying, "This claim about election fraud is disputed."

The dismissal of Christopher Krebs, director of DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, follows the agency's declaration that the general election was the most secure in U.S. history.

Chris Krebs: Trump ousts Homeland Security cyber chief Chris Krebs, who called election secure

The statement served as a pointed rebuke to a president who continues to make unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud while Trump's legal team pursues multiple legal challenges in battleground states.

"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the agency reported Thursday in an assessment joined by a coalition of election security groups, including the National Association of State Election Directors. "All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors."

The former director acknowledged Trump's action in a brief tweet Tuesday: "Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow."

– Kevin Johnson and David Jackson

2 accused of voter fraud in California

Two men are accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration applications for homeless people, Los Angeles County prosecutors said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro, 53, allegedly submitted more than 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications between July and October. Marcos Raul Arevalo, 34, also faces charges in the case.

They are both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit voter fraud, eight counts of voter fraud, four counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument and four misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit.

Montenegro also allegedly falsified names, address and signatures on nomination papers to run for mayor in the city of Hawthorne, prosecutors said.

He is charged with an additional 10 counts of voter fraud, seven counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, two counts of perjury and five misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit.

The district attorney's Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.

– Lita Nadebah Beck

In Michigan, Wayne County election results certified after last-minute reversal

The Wayne County Board of Canvassers in Michigan unanimously voted to certify the county's November election results late Tuesday night after an earlier unprecedented 2-2 deadlock along partisan lines.

The board also passed a resolution calling on Michigan's secretary of state to conduct an independent comprehensive audit of all of the jurisdictions in Wayne County that recorded unexplained discrepancies between the number of absentee ballots recorded as cast and the number of absentee ballots counted.

Earlier Tuesday, the two Republican members of the board voted against certifying the results.

Public commenters who spoke during the meeting accused the board's Republican members of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters – particularly African American voters – in initially refusing to certify the election.

The board is comprised of four members — two Democrats and two Republicans.

Tuesday was the final day the board could certify the county's election results. The unanimous vote to certify the results comes just in time for the board to meet Michigan's deadline.

– Clara Hendrickson (Detroit Free Press)

Michigan: GOP members reverse course, vote to certify Wayne County election results

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2020 updates: Biden to meet with health care workers

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