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John Travia

2020 Election in Review

President Trump and President-Elect Biden have come to the end of their 2020 campaigns (images from cnn.com).

Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States. Biden, the former Vice President under Barack Obama and longtime Senator from Delaware, defeated incumbent President Donald Trump to become the nation's 46th President.


The election, as expected, took longer than usual to call. While Americans have become accustomed to learning the victor of the Presidential race on election night, this year's race was not called until Saturday morning. This is due to states offering increased mail-in and early voting options in response to the Coronavirus pandemic while not updating their vote counting laws. States like Florida were allowed to begin counting mail-in and early votes prior to election day, which allowed Florida to be called on election night. States like Pennsylvania, which ultimately won the Presidency for Joe Biden, didn't allow mail-in votes to be counted until Election Day. Pennsylvania initially only reported votes cast on Election Day, which leaned heavily in favor of Donald Trump, who repeatedly and without basis insisted that mail-in votes would lead to fraud. This created a so-called "red mirage", where it appeared that Trump was leading in states that he would ultimately lose, as they had only counted Trump-favoring Election Day votes. As these states began counting mail-in and early votes, which leaned heavily in favor of Joe Biden, who had long encouraged his supporters to vote early or by mail due to concerns about the Coronavirus pandemic, Biden began to take the lead, in what election commentators referred to as a "blue shift".

Biden won the election by flipping many Rust Belt states that Trump had won in 2016, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, restoring the "blue wall" of historically Democrat-voting states that Trump had broken in 2016. Biden also managed to win the historical Republican stronghold of Arizona. At the time of writing, three states, Georgia, Alaska and North Carolina, remain uncalled by the Associated Press and other major news outlets. Alaska appears to be heavily leaning towards Donald Trump, and the President maintains a lead in North Carolina. However, North Carolina has not been called yet, as mail-in ballots can arrive as late as November 12. These mail-in ballots, like mail-in ballots across the country, appear to be in President Elect Biden's favor, although slightly. Georgia, which has not been won by a Democrat since President Bill Clinton won the Peach State in 1992, appears to be trending towards Joe Biden, with the President-elect maintaining a slight but consistent lead as votes continue to be counted. While we're still waiting on the results from these states, they are essentially irrelevant, as Biden has already won the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected President, and currently has 290 electoral votes.

President Trump, furious about the election results, has continually questioned the validity of the results, making claims of voter fraud without providing evidence that has resulted in many of his tweets being flagged for being misleading and news networks, including Fox News, cutting away from his press conferences. The Trump team has filed several lawsuits in key states demanding that the vote counting be stopped. Judges in Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina threw out lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in those states, stating that the campaign's lawsuits lacked any evidence to justify their demands. These lawsuits are an incredible longshot and highly doubtful to chance the results of the election. While many cite the precedent of the 2000 case Bush v. Gore, where the Supreme Court stopped election recounts in Florida, ultimately leading to President George W. Bush's victory, there are significant differences between the two elections. Most notably, the 2000 election was decided by who won the state of Florida, and President Bush only led Al Gore in Florida by a mere 537 votes. In contrast, for Trump to win the 2020 election, he would have to flip multiple states, all of which Biden leads by tens of thousands of votes. While some Republicans have either publicly supported Trump's legal efforts or remained silent, others, including Utah senator and former Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney and close Trump ally and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, have urged the President to abandon his efforts. Governor Christie insisted that Trump would need to provide evidence of fraud or move on, while Senator Romney stated that Trump should be 'careful' with his rhetoric about the election.

Joe Biden's victory is a historic one. Biden, who turns 78 later this month, will be the oldest president to start a term in American history. The Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris, will become the first woman, first South Asian American, and first Black American to be elected Vice President.

On a fun note, Biden's victory also means the return of dogs to the White House. Biden will bring his two German Shepherds, Champ and Major, with him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, marking a return to the tradition of Presidential First Pets interrupted by Trump. Major, taking a cue from the rest of the Biden ticket, is also going to be making history, becoming the first shelter dog to live with the First Family.

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