Election 2020 - The Results Are In

The results are in, and President-elect Joseph Biden will serve as the 46th president of the United States of America. His inauguration with running mate Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take place on Jan. 20, 2021.

At this event, Harris will make history as she becomes the first woman, African American, and South Asian-American vice president.

Even though Election Day was officially Nov. 3, the final result was not calculated and announced until the afternoon on Nov. 7.  This is largely due to the great increase in voter turnout and mail-in ballots submitted this election.

These mail-in ballots turned out to be very significant in many states, as the leader in multiple different states including Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, was flipped on and after Election Day.

Michigan remained consistently red throughout many of the pre-election predictions and after Election Day.  This stayed true until Wayne County votes were tallied and finalized, which then switched the state to blue and eventually giving 16 electoral votes to Biden.

Wisconsin, which was finalized as blue in this election, was also in the talks because of claims of voter fraud. According to USA Today, misleading claims on Facebook and Instagram stated that ballots were being “dumped” or “found”. Director of elections in Milwaukee County, Julietta Henry, disputed this claim and stated that ballots were not being found.

Another state whose electoral votes proved to be very significant in this year’s election was Nevada, a state granted six electoral votes. As of Friday night, Biden was six votes away from victory, and Nevada was leaning in his direction but had not yet tallied all of its votes.  At this same time, Georgia and Pennsylvania were also awaiting final decision, but leaning toward Trump.  However, both states switched to blue by Saturday morning.

Pennsylvania was last in the flipped blue states, giving Biden 20 electoral votes and pushing him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

The Trump administration has vowed to seek legal action against many of these swing states, claiming to the sway of voting, but many are skeptical if these allegations have grounds to stand on. 

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have campaigned to better equality, climate change, and further LGBTQ rights in America. In an initial celebratory speech by Biden this evening however, he says his first action will be to create his own COVID-19 task force to combat the ongoing world pandemic that is seeing a second surge in cases this fall. 

Courtesy Image, Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images