The Trump administration has acknowledged Joe Biden as the winner of the election, even if the President himself has not admitted defeat.
The bureaucrat tasked with green-lighting the transition between presidents has now given her approval to the process.
Emily Murphy, the administrator of the US General Services Administration, has written a letter to Mr Biden kick-starting the transition.
Ms Murphy was being pressured by Democrats to begin the transition earlier, and pressured from the White House against doing it at all.
“I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what is right,” she wrote in the letter.
“Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts.
“I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official – including those who work at the White House or GSA – with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.”
Mr Trump has yet to concede defeat in the election, though such an admission has no legal bearing.
He did however thank Ms Murphy in a tweet.
“I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country.
“She has been harassed, threatened, and abused – and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA.
“Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country…
“I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”
A new administration involves thousands of new political appointees across every federal department.
Each of those staffers needs a background check from the FBI.
Mr Biden has started announcing his first batch of national security appointments.
Antony Blinken has been named as Mr Biden’s prospective Secretary of State.
Alejandro Mayorkas was nominated as the Secretary of Homeland Security, the first Latino in the senior role.
Avril Haines will be the first female Director of National Intelligence if confirmed by the Senate.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield has been nominated as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
And Jake Sullivan was named as Mr Biden’s national security adviser.
Michigan certifies election win
One of the two Republican members of the Michigan state canvassing board, Aaron Van Langevelde, joined the two Democrats to vote to certify the election results, after it was unclear how he would vote prior to the meeting.
The question of certifying Michigan’s election results moved centre stage amid the Trump campaign’s dubious claims of voter fraud and efforts in court to delay certification and overturn the results in several key states that voted for Mr Biden.
As the Michigan board debated Monday, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court rejected the Trump campaign’s effort to block the counting of certain absentee ballots – clearing the way for votes to be certified in multiple counties, including Philadelphia.
At Monday’s meeting, Mr Van Langevelde signalled that he believed he was required to certify the vote under state law, regardless of whether he believed there should be an audit of Wayne County’s election results.
He said he supported an audit, but that did not mean the board should wait to certify the election first.
“We must not attempt to exercise power we don’t have,” he said.
The other Republican on the board, Norman Shinkle, abstained.
He argued that the board should not certify the election results until an investigation into voting in Wayne County – the state’s largest, which includes Detroit – was completed.
Mr Shinkle asked the Republican-led Michigan legislature to conduct a review of the 2020 election.
Earlier this month, the Republican canvassing board members in Wayne County initially voted against certification, before voting in favour after a public uproar.
The GOP board members received a call from Mr Trump that night, and the following day they filed affidavits seeking to rescind their votes, which they could not do so.
That shifted the attention to the state canvassing board, which also has two Republican and two Democratic members.
Before the vote, the board heard from election officials like local clerks, campaign lawyers and other experts.
Mr Van Langevelde signalled his view from the outset, debating about the board’s role with a lawyer for GOP Senate candidate John James, who argued the canvassing board could adjourn and wait for the results of an audit before certifying the results.
Mr Van Langevelde disagreed.
“I’ve had a pretty good chance to look at the law. There is nothing in the law that gives me the authority to request an audit,” he said.
Mr Shinkle came to a different conclusion.
He asked Chris Thomas, who served as a senior adviser to the Detroit city clerk and has built a decades-long career serving both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in Michigan, under what circumstances the board can delay certification.
Mr Thomas said, “If you have the completed returns, I don’t think you can adjourn,” and that the only option the board has now is to certify the results. All counties in Michigan have certified their results.
Mr Shinkle rejected Mr Thomas’ characterisation that the election ran smoothly. “Smoothly is not accurate at all,” Mr Shinkle said.
Mr Shinkle sought at the meeting to ask questions of Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, who initially was not slated to speak but appeared via video, like other witnesses, after a brief recess.
Mr Shinkle asked whether the city had hired sufficient Republican poll workers for the election as required under state law, claiming Republicans who sought to work the polls were denied.
Mr Winfrey responded that the city had hired as many Republicans as it could, but those who applied too late were not allowed to take the job.
Republican and Democratic state and local officials appeared via video to speak at the meeting.
When one Republican repeated debunked conspiracy theories about the vote count, one of the Democratic board members asked whether the allegations had been submitted to the attorney general, because the canvassing board could not investigate those claims.
The Trump campaign has tried to interfere with the certification process, and Mr Trump has courted Michigan officials as he and lawyer Rudy Giuliani continue to claim without evidence widespread voter fraud and a “rigged election.”
Mr Trump met with Republican Michigan state legislators at the White House last week and state Republican leadership, including Mr Chatfield, said in a statement “we have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election.”
The Republican National Committee and Michigan Republican Party sent a letter to the board of canvassers on Saturday asking them to delay certification for 14 days.
They also asked for them to wait for an audit of the election results in Wayne County, the largest county in the state that includes Detroit – even though state law doesn’t allow that.
