For those in the United States, this has been what feels like the longest week of the year, eagerly waiting for the final votes to be counted to elect the new president of the United States. After a whirlwind year, the people knew just how important this upcoming election would be, and that showed with the millions of ballots collected and counted. With the interesting prior debates from President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, it became clear that this was not going to be a normal election.
As the week of Nov. 2 unfolded, many mail-in ballots and poll voting were handled, and the race for 270 electoral votes was on its way. Due to the ongoing pandemic, mall-in ballots grew in popularity for those that were uncomfortable or unable to attend an in-person voting poll. With this new normal of mail-in voting, as some would also call absentee voting, some controversy grew about how this may be voter fraud. Voter fraud, being illegal rigging of votes, can consist of many voter crimes. As more absentee ballots and states’ final vote totals became available to the public, Donald Trump began to be quite vocal on his views about voter fraud and even demands of a recount.
As the week progressed, this election became the story of every conversation. Citizens in and outside the U.S. sat aimlessly through election streaming channels watching numbers go up, for both Trump and Biden. But as the people of the free world waited patiently for votes to flood in, Trump was more interested in the mail-in voting process, as more of those votes placed favor on Biden. On Nov. 4, Trump went ahead and tweeted, “They are finding Biden votes all over place” and, “So bad for our Country,” blaming certain states for supporting Biden. Of course, this is not the first time Trump has used Twitter as his own personal diary, and most of his tweets have been shielded with a description labeling “content in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” which comes as no surprise.
Both Trump and Biden went on air to discuss this ongoing election, with Biden reminding the people that “all votes must be counted” and to “keep the faith,” and Trump going on to explain that he will be the winner and again, believing the fraud of mail-in voting. However, the election was not over, and the states including Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia were still counting their final votes. These, and the other swing states became a big topic of discussion, and even the surrounding theme to many internet jokes and memes. Many citizens used platforms like Instagram and TikTok to joke about the slower vote count process with these swing states, almost pushing away the anxiety and realization of the grave importance of how these states will vote.
As the electoral votes became more clear to the people, it seemed to push in favor of Joe Biden, which Trump did not take lightly, including tweeting “STOP THE COUNT” on Nov. 5. Biden however did not claim any victory just yet, as the awaited swing states were still on their way within the counting process. During this time Trump expressed his passion on voter fraud, stating that the recent Biden claimed states “will be legally challenged by us for voter fraud and state election fraud,” refusing to accept defeat in these swing states. Would Trump go up for debate if he had won these states? It seems as if Trump may be taking these election results a bit too personally, instead of stating where the alleged voter fraud have occurred.
After many state results, eager citizens, and the big swing states beginning to pull in their vote, the projected 46th president of the United States was announced as Joe Biden on Nov. 7, and his ally Kamala Harris, being the first African American and first woman to take the spot of Vice President. This victory to the Democratic Party became loud all across the U.S., and even in other countries. One being the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who tweeted his congratulations to Biden and Harris as well as stating, “London looks forward to working with you – it’s time to get back to building bridges, not walls.” Outroar of positive protest and rallies for Biden were shown all around the U.S., even including citizens outside the White House telling Trump his time is up
While the window of opportunity for Trump is narrowing exponentially, Republican leaders are encouraging him to continue battling, and if he finds a way to overcome his current predicament through litigation, chaos in the streets will be inevitabe..
During this time however, Trump was seen at his golf course, unable to speak about the results of this election to the public. Once Trump began to come back into the limelight, he bluntly stated that he actually won the election “by a lot,” and blamed the media for calling who the next president will be. Trump may be taking legal action during this time against voter fraud in Biden winning states, but the ending votes were not as close as Trump may think, and Biden certainly secured the lead for the next president-elect in the end. So now the question is what will happen next,? Will Trump find full voter fraud against Biden that could overthrow his candidacy? Or should Trump simply accept his defeat and pass the torch to the next president of the U.S.?
