Nov. 3, Americans awaited the results of Election Day following the 2020 presidential election; however, the results were delayed.
With states allowing voters to vote by mail, approximately a third of registered voters voted prior to Election Day. Early voting even surpassed two-thirds of the ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election. Voter turnout was predicted to be higher than that of the 2016 voter turnout, which had approximately 54 percent of eligible voters voting.
“Only one of our club officers vote[s] in Etown and he said the wait time was about an hour,” Political Director of the Elizabethtown College Democrats Andrea Guscott said. Other officers voted by mail.
According to polls, Joe Biden held a lead of an average of 8.74 points prior to Election Day. As such, Biden had been predicted to win the 2020 presidential election.
Nine states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — were battleground states in the presidential election. Based on polls, Biden led in the following battleground states prior to Election Day: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Donald Trump, however, was predicted to win battleground states such as Iowa and Ohio. In the polls, Biden and Trump tied in Georgia and North Carolina.
The Electoral College played a pivotal role in the 2016 presidential election, as Trump was declared the winner based on the Electoral College, even though he lost the national popular vote. Polls suggest that Biden was in the lead with 226 electoral votes for Biden and 125 electoral votes for Trump. However, pollsters declared that 187 electoral votes were up for grabs in the 2020 presidential election.
In the U.S. Senate, five seats were up for grabs with 14 leaning Democratic and 16 leaning Republican. In order to flip the chamber, Democrats needed to gain four additional seats. Republicans were expected to hold a majority in the U.S. Senate. As for the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats were predicted to win 232 seats with Republicans predicted to win 182; 21 seats were up for grabs. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the majority was expected to be Democratic.
As of Nov. 8, Democrats and Republicans each flipped one seat for the U.S. Senate; however, Democrats managed a net gain of one seat. It now depends on Georgia to decide which political party will hold the majority in the U.S. Senate, or if it’ll tie.
Both U.S. Senate seats in Georgia have advanced to a runoff, which will be held Jan. 5 of 2021. Jon Ossoff (GA-D) will be advancing to a runoff against David Perdue (GA-R), whereas Kelly Loeffler (GA-R) will advance to a runoff against Raphael Warnock (GA-D).
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats flipped three seats; however, Republicans flipped eight, gaining five additional seats.
By Thursday, Americans were awaiting finalized results in states such as Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
