By Joe Tomlinson / Sports Editor
On Tuesday Nov. 3, the 59th U.S. presidential election began between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and the incumbent President Donald Trump.
Voter turnout for this year’s election has shattered earlier precedents set by the American public and is projected to far exceed previous records. The coronavirus pandemic impacted this election in that millions of people were unable or unwilling to risk voting in person on Nov. 3. Due to this and a myriad of other factors like increased polarization, more people than ever turned to early voting and mail-in ballots.
By Sunday, Oct. 31, around 93 million people had already cast their votes, according to Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who runs the U.S. Elections Project. In the days and weeks leading up to the election, Trump repeatedly expressed concern over mail-in voting, characterizing it as an attempt to ”steal” the election from him.
Trump had a speech broadcasted from the East Room in the White House on the night of Nov. 3, where he prematurely declared victory before the election had ended.
“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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2020
The days after the election have created a contentious political atmosphere between opposing liberal and conservative forces. That is a phenomenon that continues to escalate as Trump and his administration make louder and louder accusations of foul play. Another factor contributing to the tension is the delay in vote counting, a result of a record amount of mail-in ballots that poll workers in many states could not access until Election Day.
As it stands, there are several battleground states with thousands of uncounted votes waiting to be tallied. Biden is looking to become just the third Democratic nominee to win Arizona. He currently leads with 50% percent of votes, leaving Trump with 48.6%, while an estimated 93% of votes have been counted.
Perhaps the biggest development of the election so far has been Biden’s success in Georgia, a traditionally red state that Trump won easily in 2016. As more votes were counted, Trump’s lead continued to dwindle until Friday morning, when Biden took a slim lead. According to Georgia Secretary of State George Raffensperger, the state will conduct a recount due to the close margin.
“Of approximately 5 million votes cast, we’ll have a margin of a few thousand,” he said Friday morning. “With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia.”
Biden also recently overtook Trump in Pennsylvania, a crucial race since the state’s 20 electoral votes could drastically change the outcome of the election. By Friday morning, Biden held a lead of around 5,000 votes, which has since ballooned to 13,000 with over 100,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted.
Another state up for grabs is Nevada, where Biden held a small lead on Wednesday, Nov. 4. He has since doubled the margin, leading Trump by 20,000 votes with an approximate 92% of votes counted. In 2004, President George W. Bush was the last Republican to win Nevada’s six electoral votes.
The only battleground state Trump currently holds a lead is North Carolina, where 15 electoral votes are on the line. With 95% of the votes in, Trump has 2,732,120 votes to Biden’s 2,655,383, indicating another close, down to the wire contest.
Presently, Biden has 264 of the 270 electoral votes required to win outright. President Trump trails by a significant margin at 214 electoral votes and is desperately trying to keep afloat. In recent days, he has tweeted “STOP THE COUNT!” and “we are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election.”
Trump lost two court rulings on Thursday, Nov. 5, after filing lawsuits disputing the voting results in Georgia and Michigan. Both cases were dismissed as baseless by state judges. Regardless, Trump has promised to bring a lawsuit against alleged “voting irregularities” in Nevada.
Three days have passed since election day and there is still no decisive winner. The end of the election may come later rather than sooner, especially if Trump sustains his outrage and anger toward the process.
