Joe Biden: ‘Democracy prevailed,’ ‘time to turn the page’

President-elect Joseph R. Biden is set to declare on Monday that the 2020 election is over and that it’s now time to move full speed ahead with preparing for the new administration.

Mr. Biden was scheduled to speak Monday evening after electors across the country formally affirmed his win over President Trump.

“In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,” Mr. Biden says in excerpts of his prepared remarks. “Now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.”

Mr. Biden defeated Mr. Trump by a projected 306-232 margin in the Electoral College. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

The formal gathering of the Electoral College, as mandated by federal law, is one of the final steps to certify a new president before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

A newly constituted Congress is set to consider the results on Jan. 6. Some of the president’s GOP allies have indicated that they plan to object to Mr. Biden’s electoral votes.

Many Republicans have held off on recognizing Mr. Biden as the president-elect as Mr. Trump and his legal team fought the results in court, alleging widespread fraud and irregularities in a handful of states Mr. Biden won narrowly.

The president and his allies have come up nearly empty in the courts and have been unable to overturn the results in any state where they’ve launched legal challenges.

Mr. Biden had previously said that he hoped more GOP leaders would come around after electors voted Monday but that he understood the kind of pressure Republicans are facing from the president and Mr. Trump’s supporters.

Republican electors in states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia voted for Mr. Trump Monday on the hope that courts might intervene later.

Mr. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 by the same projected 306-232 margin.

But the final tally in 2016 was 304-227 after some so-called “faithless electors” rebelled and didn’t follow the popular vote in their respective states.

In July, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld laws in various states that say electors who don’t follow the popular vote in their state can be removed or punished.