Actions

What's ascertainment? The green light to launch transition

Joe Biden
Posted at 1:29 PM, Nov 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-09 13:29:13-05

WASHINGTON (AP) — The course of President-elect Joe Biden's transition to power is dependent in part on an obscure declaration called “ascertainment.”

The formal presidential transition doesn’t begin until the administrator of the federal General Services Administration ascertains the “apparent successful candidate” in the general election.

Neither the Presidential Transition Act nor federal regulations specify how that determination should be made.

That decision greenlights the entire federal government’s moves toward preparing for a handover of power.