U.S Election: What in the United States?
Photo Credit: CTV News
Tuesday November 3rd marked election day for millions of Americans across the United States and for the rest of the world, it became must watch politics.
However, the process of selecting a new president in 2020 hasn’t been quick or easy and rather than an election day, we’ve witness an election week that has dragged into 5 days of 24 hour news cycles and disproportionate projections for each state as various organisations from CNN, Fox News and Decision Desk offered different totals of the electoral college between Joseph Biden for the Democratic Party and Donald Trump for the Republican Party.
The exciting and often anxiety inducing coverage finally concluded around 4pm GMT on November 7th when President-elect Joe Biden emerged victorious as the 46th President of the United States, securing a current total of 279 electoral college votes, with a few states still awaiting their final results.
Why did Biden win?
I have previously covered the difference between Biden and Trumps campaigns and it is clear to see that Biden’s focus on appealing to the broadest range of voters and acting as a mediator who can bring a heavily fractured country back together has worked.
In short, the Biden and Harris ticket has represented stability and change for voters who feel as if their country has suffered under the Trump administration. This couldn’t have been more clearer than after a terrible round of televised debates, where neither candidate could be properly heard over the shouting and interrupting from the other.
Furthermore, the continued poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by Trump and his follow up declaration that a vote for Biden was a vote for science might not have landed too well with swing voters.
Biden may have not been the most charismatic or exciting candidate, with many American’s seeing him as a bridge for the next generation, being a boring but stable candidate is perhaps just what America needs right now.
Photo Credit: NBC News
A new democracy?
The election hasn’t just been about voting for a new president either, but also acting as an experiment on ensuring democracy prevails at the height of a global pandemic.
For the first time, many Americans were given the options to vote via mail if they preferred without the reason for needing a legitimate excuse, rather than waiting in-line on polling day. This allowed millions of voters to vote early and some states, a much larger turnout has been recorded.
The Trump administration has used this change in voting to accuse the system of being undemocratic and ‘rigged’ to the Democrats favour, however election officials have insisted that the correct and legal process has been followed, despite the now looming law suits being filed by Trumps team.
The battle for the battlegrounds
Photo Credit: CNN
Early voting and absentee voting via mail couldn’t have made more of a difference than in the key battleground swing states for Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin.
Before election day, many Democrats hoped for a so called ‘blue wave’ where Biden would comfortably win the Presidency by a landslide, which would be seen as a huge embarrassment to the Trump administration and Republican Party. However, as the results began to come in, key swing states such as Texas and Florida which offer 38 and 29 electoral votes both went to Trump, although via a very small margin.
For many voters, it seemed too close to call and the worry of a repeated strong performance similar to 2016 would see another 4 years for Donald Trump. But this is where mailing votes made the huge difference. Up until Wednesday, Trump was leading in most swing states by a margin of 2-14%, but as the mailed votes began to be added to the election day results, Biden began to fight back.
The first flips, where a state changes its overall party elegance from the last election, came from Arizona and Michigan, with some news outlets calling the states for Biden based on a rough 70/30 split between mail votes favouring the Democrats. This took Biden ahead of Trump in electoral votes, but still not enough for 270, it wasn’t until Wisconsin and the all-important Pennsylvania offering 20 electoral votes that Biden crossed the line.
As it stands, Biden has also just won Nevada and is also expected to win the state of Georgia, bringing his total to 306 electoral votes and making any legal challenge virtually impossible.
Final thoughts
As we enter a short period between the electoral college meeting to confirm Biden’s victory and Trump being removed from office come January 2021 we can remain hopeful for the future.
America has seen 4 years or brutality, racism, violence and protests, all during a global pandemic. I hope under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the country can truly begin to heal.