2020 Presidential Election Results
Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden has defeated the incumbent president Donald Trump in the 2020 election. After almost a week of counting in several key battleground states, the news of the Democratic victory broke on November 7.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the country, an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots poured into polling booths. From the beginning, election officials as well as candidates acknowledged that the result of this election would not be determined on election night, but rather a few days to a few weeks afterwards. The ballot count process varied greatly per state, with some opting to count mail in ballots first, while others chose to do in-person votes. This affected the early stages of the election dramatically, as mail-in votes tended to be for the Democrat’s candidate, and in-person ballots tended to be Republican. The counting system of each state dictated how that state looked to lean in the early stages.
Election night began as expected, with solid states for both the incumbent president and the Democratic candidate being projected in their favor. State projections were coming in consistently and delays were short. However, problems began when results for several key battleground states were razor close. Nevada, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, all crucial states, had the nation holding its breath as the votes trickled in. Pennsylvania finally released the tension by calling the state for Biden, pushing him over the 270 mark in the Electoral College.
Supporters of the Democratic nominee could buy merchandise to support the Biden campaign, like these pins.
Biden won the election with a total of 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 232. This is the inverse of the results from the 2016 presidential election, where Trump won the race with a total of 306 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232. Biden managed to flip states that had gone red in 2016: such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. In fact, these states are the only ones that changed from the election results of 2016, and this was the first election Georgia has gone blue in 28 years.
“I’ll be honest, I really expected Trump to win,” Brooke Hartman, 9, said, “It just seemed like there weren’t enough people that liked Biden enough.”
President Trump has not been silent on his defeat, and has plans to challenge the results in court. He bases his claims on voter fraud and illegitimate ballots, however his administration’s lawsuits have yet to gain traction and they have been struck down in several states.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said in an early-morning address on November 4.
The electors of the Electoral College meet and cast the votes that actually determine the president on December 14. Whether Biden will remain President-Elect or if the incumbent president can make a comeback is yet to be seen.
photo by Leyla Dumke