On Nov. 3, President Donald Trump led in most states, but many of the ballots had not been counted yet. This was due to many voters opting for mail-in ballots. On Nov. 7, former Vice president Joseph Biden was declared the 2020-2024 President-Elect of the United States by most mainstream media. The coronavirus pandemic left many Americans wanting to reduce contact and mail-in their ballots instead. Each state has created its own requirements and deadlines for mail-in ballots. Overall, 50.3% of votes were cast by mail-in ballots in the primaries for this year’s election.
“The amount of mail-in ballots were definitely needed in 2020,” junior Sydney Dollaghan Martinez said. “With Covid, people needed a safe way to vote and I believe that mail-in ballots were a great resource.”
This became crucial in states including Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, Florida and Pennsylvania. Georgia and Arizona both flipped blue this year and are under the spotlight because of their solid Republican history. As more mail-in ballots were counted Biden began taking the lead and flipped many swing states. President Trump claims that these flips are the result of voter fraud and he has not conceded to date. In Marin County, Biden received 83% of the vote while President Trump received 15%. Overall, Biden’s campaign won 26 states including some of the flip states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Michigan.
Biden received 78 million votes and Trump received 73 million votes giving Biden the lead in the popular vote by about 5 million votes. He was Vice President in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 with the Barack Obama Administration, the first African American president of the United States. Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, represents many communities for the first time in the White House. She will be the first woman, African-American, Asian-American, and immigrant child to be Vice President.
In addition, minorities played a part in Biden’s win. He believes that there is racism in America and there are things that need to be done to stop it. He proposes a build back program to help minorities with business support. Although he does not believe in defunding the police, he does want resources to be used to maintain better standards within the system. Bidens intentions to create change within the criminal justice system do not stop there. Biden wants to reduce incareration, rehabilitate released prisoners, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, and end the death penalty.
Biden will be facing one of the most pressing issues in United States history, the coronavirus pandemic. He did not hold back on his thoughts about how he felt that President Donald Trump had failed the American people by letting the virus quickly get out of hand. Biden intends to make testing for the coronavirus both free and more accessible for all Americans. He plans to continue to extend loans to small businesses and families affected by the virus.
Another issue Biden hopes to make steps toward solving is climate change. The Paris Climate Accord pushed for the communication about climate change between nations. It included commitments from many of the large emission countries, including the US, to reduce their pollution emissions. In 2017, President Trump announced the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement because he believed it was unfair. Biden wants to rejoin the agreement and proposes a federal investment for green technology research. With many of his new plans in place Biden hopes to have zero emissions by 2050.
Biden wants to continue to focus on our country from inside the borders by extending efforts for health care for all, student loan debt forgiveness, tuition-free colleges, and universal pre-school access. Although Biden continues to focus within our borders, he also strives to restore America’s reputation. To do this he intends to repair relationships with US allies and hold China accountable.
Biden plans to undo many things that Trump put in place including a policy separating parents from their children at the US-Mexico border as well as, reinstating DACA. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a policy that allows certain people who came to the United States illegally as children and meet several guidelines to request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years. These children are commonly referred to as Dreamers. In 2017 Trump tried to end the DACA program, but he was stopped by the Supreme Court. On July 28, Chad F. Wolf, the secretary of homeland security, released a memo directing his staff to deny all future and pending requests for DACA applications. The Biden administration plans to protect the Dreamers.
“They are Americans now,” Biden said. “They should be treated as Americans now.”
Although Biden has been elected President-Elect of the United States by most sources, the election is not over. The electoral college will meet on Dec. 14 to vote on this year’s election. The abrupt and odd change of this year’s election due to mail-in ballots has caused many Republicans to question the ballot counting. Many highly respected Republicans like George W. Bush, who was in similar circumstances during his election, congratulated Biden. However, many everyday Republican citizens believe that the election is rigged and Trump is right to be filing lawsuits.
“I believe there should be a recount and an investigation into the election to figure out where these votes came from,” junior Gabe Forrester said. “Dead people can’t vote and I don’t know how the election would go if there was a recount, but like I said whoever wins is my President.”
One of the many voter fraud claims is evidence of votes cast from citizens who died before their ballots would have been received. However, all of these claims have been debunked and resolved as many of the problems were human errors made in dates, names, or just computer glitches. President Donald Trump’s administration filed various lawsuits against Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada regarding voter fraud with little to no evidence and a slim chance of winning given the size of Biden’s lead in those states.
The most recent election where legal action took place was in 2000. George W. Bush was announced the winner of the 2000-2004 election by the media against Former Vice President Al Gore. The election hinged on 537 votes in Florida. Florida was required by state law to recount, but the Bush campaign successfully delayed the recounting through the Supreme Court and ultimately the Supreme Court overruled the recount in Florida. With 271 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election and only a little over two weeks away from certifying the state’s electors, President Bush secured the election. Trump has only 232 electoral votes while Biden has 290.
Along with lawsuits Trump has asked for a recount in Wisconsin, and Georgia. Recounts which historically only change a few hundred votes. Biden is leading in Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes and Georgia by around 14,000 votes. The American people may have to wait for closure until the electoral college votes in December.
The Associated Press 2020 US Election Results indicated Joe Biden President-Elect. Joe Biden won the electoral votes on Saturday Nov. 7 yet, President Donald Trump refuses to concede.
