Results of the Presidential Election 

Results of the Presidential Election 

2020 has been a year full of surprises, changes, and uncertainty. This year, many historical events have taken place, along with many controversies. In this change of decade, we’ve faced issues that haven’t even been thought of before. A pandemic, natural disasters like no other, movements, and more. On top of all this chaos, 2020 just so happens to be an election year. And just like 2020, this year’s election will go down in history as one of the most intense and controversial elections to ever take place. 

Americans all over the United States are divided at a time when it is crucial to be united. The two nominees, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden both put up a fight during this election that will for sure be forever remembered. The election resulted in Joe Biden being chosen as the winner after a full week of Americans wondering who would win.  

In order to understand the results of the election, you must first understand how the voting process in America works. Each citizen over the age of 18 first votes for their preferred candidate. As these votes are coming in, the state gets broken down by county and eventually the candidate that the majority in the state voted for earns the state’s electoral votes. According to the article released by the Associated Press, titled Why Does The Media Call Races in US Elections, “…once a presidential election ends, each state chooses its representatives to the Electoral College — a number based on the size of each state’s population and how many representatives and senators it has in Congress.” This explains why some states, such as California have more than others, such as South Carolina for example.

In order to win the election, the winner must reach at least 270 electoral votes. This can be done by winning any states as long as they total to this amount. This process was created by the founding fathers of the US as opposed to the popular vote or  having only state officials vote. Most states tend to lean to a certain party, Democrat or Republican, every election year. There are a few “key states” or “swing states”. These are the states that fluctuate between parties. Most elections come down to these few states and this is what made this election so intense. 

Republican nominee, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee, Joe Biden went head to head on Tuesday, November 3rd for the position of the 46th president of the United States. Even though this election took place on Tuesday, the results were not announced until Saturday, November 7th. 

The article listed above, did a very good job of explaining why counting each vote and determining a winner takes so long. “As it was very slow counting and communicating of returns, news organizations emerged as major players in first, collecting and adding together the vote from each state’s election officials around the country, then announcing the victor based on that vote count,” Alexandra Olson and David Koeing explained in this article. On Saturday morning, former Vice President, Joe Biden was announced as the 2020 President-Elect and determined to be the winner. The final push to make this decision was when AP representatives determined that Joe Biden had won the state of electoral college of Pennsylvania, which put him over the edge to the needed 270 electoral votes. Pennsylvania is a swing state so it was one of the most watched and important states in the election. 

Due to the voting for this election having been mostly by mail in ballot, this has led to many second-guessing the decision. Republicans are wondering if there had been cases of voter fraud or not counted ballots. President Donald Trump and the Rebuplican committee have challenged Biden’s win and plan on taking their case to court and even going all the way to the Supreme court if necessary. The final decision has either angered many, or has brought joy to many as well, but it is important that no matter what, we stay united as a country and support everyone. 

For more information, visit: https://apnews.com/article/why-does-media-call-races-us-elections-20e9b5688aa0b7404648ea74b1c2f4dc