In a few weeks, Joe Biden is due to be officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
As the Democratic leader prepares for his transition into the White House, the next formal event to mark that process will be a joint Congress meeting, where certificates of electoral votes from every state and Washington DC are opened and counted.
This is usually a ceremonial process that marks the transition from one leader to another.
But this year, the event is expected to mark a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump's supporters to overturn the election results, despite no evidence of widespread corruption in the vote.
What will happen on 6 January?
On 6 January, Congress will meet to formally count the votes cast by the Electoral College.
As it stands, incoming President Joe Biden has 306 Electoral College votes, against just 232 for outgoing President Donald Trump. It takes 270 electoral college votes to bag the White House.
The meeting is a standard part of the presidential handover - a formality required by the 12th Amendment of the US Constitution to count the electoral votes and declare the official winner of the presidential election.
But this year it will be different.
For months before the election, Mr Trump and his campaign team have repeatedly argued - without evidence - that the election was fraudulent.
His team has launched numerous unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to reverse the results.
Rather than just a formality, this meeting marks one of the last opportunities for Mr Trump to protest his loss.
What happens during the meeting?
The House of Representatives and the Senate will meet in a joint session 1pm Wednesday EST (5am Thursday AEDT).
Vice President Mike Pence, who is President of the Senate, will lead the session.
Mr Pence will open certificates of the electoral votes from each state, and hand them to politicians nominated from each party to read aloud.
As the state’s vote is read out, Mr Pence will call for objections to the vote to be made. These objections must be made in writing and signed by at least one member of the House and one Senator.
In all 50 states, the election results have been certified as accurate following a careful review by state officials.
The Trump campaign has demanded recounts in battleground states such as Georgia and Wisconsin - both won by Mr Biden - but neither revealed evidence of large-scale fraud that could have affected the election result.
US Representative Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, is reportedly leading the effort from almost a dozen Trump-supporting Congress members to overturn Mr Biden’s victory.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the group plans to reject Electoral College votes of certain states as not “lawfully certified” unless an emergency 10-day audit process is put into place.
In a statement, they argued - without evidence - that the election was rife with “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities”.
Could the election results be overturned?
Donald Trump will need a majority of politicians in both chambers - both Democrats and Republicans - to vote in favour.
For this reason, Mr Trump's last-ditch ploy is almost certain to fail.
Democrats control the House and top Senate Republicans, such as senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Utah senator Mitt Romney, have already recognised Joe Biden as the next US President.
On the back of Mr Trump’s campaign, a string of Republicans have publicly slammed his efforts as undemocratic and setting a “dangerous precedent”.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse slammed the plan to oppose the result as a “dangerous ploy”.
"For President-Elect Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory to be overturned, President Trump would need to flip multiple states. But not a single state is in legal doubt," Mr Sasse wrote on Facebook.
"All the clever arguments and rhetorical gymnastics in the world won’t change the fact that this January 6th effort is designed to disenfranchise millions of Americans simply because they voted for someone in a different party.
"We ought to be better than that."
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, said any attempt to audit votes counted in Democrat-won states “has zero chance of becoming reality”.
Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump ally, said any attempt to audit votes counted in Democrat-won states 'has zero chance of becoming reality'. Source: Getty Images Europe
“It appears to be more of a political dodge than an effective remedy,” he said in a statement.
Republicans seeking to oppose the vote said that changing the outcome of the election isn’t their primary objective.
“We are not naive. We fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise,” they said in a joint statement.
“But support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue. A fair and credible audit—conducted expeditiously and completed well before January 20—would dramatically improve Americans’ faith in our electoral process and would significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President.”
What do the Democrats say?
Mr Biden’s transition team has dismissed the Republican group’s planned effort to contest the vote as a “stunt”.
“This stunt won’t change the fact that president-elect Biden will be sworn in on January 20th, and these baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump’s own Attorney General, dozens of courts, and election officials from both parties,” Mr Biden's team said in a statement.
Will there be more protests?
Mr Trump has also called for his supporters to travel to Washington DC on 6 January for a “Stop The Steal” protest rally.
The event will be the latest in a series of pro-Trump rallies that have taken place since the November election.
The far-right Proud Boys group has indicated its members will be attending the 6 January rally “incognito”, with organisers encouraging members to wear all black on the day rather than their traditional black and yellow uniform.
Followers of Antifa, an anti-fascist movement, generally wear all-black clothing.
"We will not be attending DC in colours. We will be blending in as one of you," said Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys group organiser.
"You won’t see us. You’ll even think we are you."
The Proud Boys and Antifa have had numerous clashes in the past. Last month, a and another person shot at a protest in Washington DC.
