After months of campaigning and unrest in America, we still have no true idea of who will become the best president of the United States. There has been talk about voter fraud and illegal votes. However, there is a little hint of who will become the president. As of right now, former Vice President Joe Biden is in the lead with the popular vote. Either way, the true winner and new president of the United States will be determined in December by the electoral college.
A new problem that has occurred in America is the mail in ballots. Millions of Americans had requested mail in ballots. Most of these Americans are more likely to be Democrat than Republican. That is why these votes shifted the election and how overnight, Joe Biden was in the lead. According to President Trump, he claimed that the mail-in ballots would rig the election. On the contrary, in Washington State, they have embraced using mainly mail-in ballots since 2005. Since then, there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Washington’s secretary of state, Kim Wyman, expresses that “said that all methods of voting have potential for fraud, but her experience in Washington was that mail ballot fraud was low” (New York Times). Even so, voter fraud is present in all elections, but not typically in large amounts.
Another major issue that is being discussed is the result of the election. Although major news sources have declared former vice-president Joe Biden the winner of the election, the final decision will be made on December 14th, 2020. Many news sources use their own election desks to call the election, while other major news sources use data collected by the Associated Press. Although multiple news sources have called the election, the election is in the hands of the electoral college. Why is the electoral college so important? Many Americans do not understand the concept of the electoral college. The simplest explanation is that when citizens vote for a presidential candidate in the popular vote, they are essentially electing a slate of electors. Those electors then cast the votes that decide who becomes the president of the United States. Usually, not all the time, electoral votes align with the popular vote of the state. This means that when electors vote they are legally supposed to vote for the party they are under, either Democrat or Republican. However, they can go against the party they are for and vote for whomever they like. Now this action is illegal in some states and legal in some, but they have to get caught in order for this to be illegal. That is why sometimes, the popular vote does not align with the electoral vote.
With every election, there are important states that can determine the winner. Pennsylvania is one of these swing states. In Pennsylvania, there are two major cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and a major college town, State College. Pennsylvania holds 20 electoral votes, which is a generous amount of votes. Many analysts believe that it was one of the most important states in the election. With more liberals residing in urban areas, and more conservatives living in suburban and rural areas, the candidates had to campaign in PA for some time. After Joe Biden won Pennsylvania, he moved ahead of President Trump in the popular vote, which could result in Biden winning the election.
Although this election has been very stressful for us all, we need to come together as one. This country has been divided for too long. With issues like Black Lives Matter vs Blue Lives Matter and Covid-19, America has been politically divided. As the election starts to come to a close and the winner is announced, I hope we all can become united and be the country we truly are.
Sources
Baker, Mike. “The Facts About Mail-In Voting and Voter Fraud.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/article/mail-in-vote-fraud-ballot.html.
Belam, Martin. “Why Are the Media Reporting Different US Election Results?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Nov. 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/05/why-are-the-media-reporting-different-us-election-results.
“What Is the Electoral College? : The Presidential Election Process : Elections : Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/presidential-election-process/what-is-the-electoral-college/.
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