And the Winner Is…? A Historic Presidential Election

Illustration%3A+CNN.com

Illustration: CNN.com

The 2020 presidential election was truly historic. Because of the surging pandemic, early voting and massive amounts of mail in ballots were permitted. Donald Trump and the Republican Party were opposed to this, claiming that mass fraud would occur. On the other side, Joe Biden and the Democrats promoted mail in voting, claiming that it would be safer than in person voting and that it would allow more people to vote. When ballots started to be counted on the night of November 3rd, Trump had a big lead. He led Biden in important states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Wisconsin. This lead continued for about a day.

Then on November 5th, Trump’s lead slowly started to evaporate in these important states. Wisconsin flipped and was called for Biden. The same also happened with Michigan. Biden was now in the lead and his chances of winning were high. The election was all coming down to Nevada. The vote count in Nevada seemed to be progressing at a standstill rate. When Nevada was still being counted, Georgia and Pennsylvania were flipped and called for Biden. Aside from Donald Trump’s claims that he won the election, this gave Joe Biden 270 electoral votes and the presidency. The next few weeks would see loads of lawsuits from the Trump legal team claiming that widespread voter fraud had occurred. These claims were made without any evidence. Because of the supposed fraud, Donald Trump did not allow Biden’s transition to start, saying that all legal votes should be counted. This prevented Biden and his newly created coronavirus task force from getting important federal funds that they needed. The transition did not begin until the General Services Administration (GSA) allowed it, around 2-3 weeks after the election.

Donald Trump has still not conceded but it is clear that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States. In the coming weeks, Biden will finish choosing his cabinet, decide on agenda and important matters, and try to unite the country.