Joe Biden Elected 46th President of the United States

• November 8, 2020
• Andrew Wiedenhofer

After a long, anxious, and turbulent election season amid a global pandemic, the people have spoken and elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the 46th President and Vice President of the United States. My sleep schedule still hadn’t adjusted from daylight savings ending a few days earlier when election night nerves intensified the restlessness. I had a number of uneasy night’s sleep since Tuesday but thankfully that has finally started to improve now that Biden has secured the election.

Elections, especially presidential elections, have always put me on edge for various reasons. One of these reasons being the fact we are still utilizing the Electoral College for some reason, but you can read out more about that in this earlier post. When it came to the 2020 presidential election my biggest fear had to do with voter turnout. I have been voting since the first election after my 18th birthday and have only missed voting in one election because I was late leaving my college and didn’t get back to my hometown in time before the polls closed. After every election I am discouraged by the low percentages of eligible voters that turn out to cast their votes.

”I’ll work with all my heart, with the confidence of the whole people, to win the confidence of all of you. And for that is what America, I believe, is about. It’s about people. And that’s what our administration will be all about. I sought this office to restore the soul of America, to rebuild the backbone of this nation: the middle class. And to make America respected around the world again. And to unite us here at home.“

(Joe Biden - Victory Speech: November 7, 2020)

As COVID-19 surged across the country I apprehensively thought it would cause even lower turnout than during normal times. Thankfully, early in the year states began making the necessary changes to their absentee and mail-in ballot restrictions ahead of the primary and we saw slightly higher than normal turnouts for the primaries and caucuses. Heading into the November election season angst was at an all-time high. The Biden/Harris team, along with local and state officials, voter advocacy groups, and anyone else with a platform to say it was pushing three things pretty hard: vote early, follow the ballot instructions closely, and track the progress of your ballot if your state allows it but you never can be sure how seriously the general public will take these suggestions.

As I stared at my iPad on election night I was in awe of the in-person voter turnout numbers being reported. The media had been warning for weeks that with so many mail in ballots to verify and count we may not have a clear winner for a week so I was ready to track the states as they slowly certified their winners over the next few days. Only a few hours into election night Joe Biden had taken a healthy lead over Trump with many of the “safe-to-call” republican and democrat states already secured on both sides. By the next day, as mail-in ballots across the country began to be included in the totals, Biden was able to flip Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump had won in 2016. These twenty-six combined electoral votes skyrocketed Biden’s lead. Even though various networks had called some closer to call states due to the overwhelming lead Biden had secured, no more battleground states were called and the nation waited for an answer. The answer finally came mid-morning on Saturday as Pennsylvania was called by all major news networks securing Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Baseless Trump legal challenges and recounts in yet called states notwithstanding, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021 no matter what anyone tries to say. We as a country are now looking forward to change and responsibility back in the White House and proper representation around the world.