On November 7th, 2020, after days of a close voter turnout, Joe Biden was declared President-Elect of the United States by media outlets. The election was very tense, with not only the popular vote constantly shifting between both candidates, but the electoral college votes clashing multiple times along the process.

 This election had its hand in making November 3 to November 7 a very stressful and suspenseful few days in the minds and hearts of Americans across the nation, and even landed itself very public importance in many other countries around the globe.

The swing states were a particularly difficult group of states to get results from, as the values of red and blue votes overlapped frequently. Donald Trump ended up taking home the majority vote of North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. Joe Biden, however, won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and New Hampshire. States like Pennsylvania and Nevada were especially pivotal victories because they fluctuated in votes many times throughout the election process, but winning those states meant an almost immediate victory for Biden. 

The Electoral College was also very conflicted, as at the beginning of the election Donald Trump and Joe Biden were neck and neck. As the days went on, however, Biden started climbing in Electoral Votes, and on November 7, Biden recieved over 270 votes, winning the title of President-Elect. Currently, Biden holds a total of 290 electoral votes to his name, while Trump has 214, and the number has stayed that way for days. 

The multitude of votes required to finalize the results of the 2020 election was very tight in numbers, but overall the election was in Joe Biden’s favor. But even though Biden’s 2020 campaign proved successful, the victory came at a cost.

However, mail-in ballots posed a drawback for some aspects of the election. Even though a lot of people utilized mail-in ballots to prevent being at risk for COVID-19, they were not the easiest to count, and some states, especially Nevada, had a very long vote-counting process that tested the patience of Americans during the election. They were definitely a safe method of voting, and a very important method at that with an ongoing global pandemic, but they did delay the election process.

Not only this, but these mail-in ballots have also been viewed as posing an ethical dilemma within the election. Donald Trump, after the election results came in, declared that there is a good possibility of voter fraud because many votes have been uncalled for from what he could see throughout the election process. This has caused a widespread debate regarding the reliability of mail-in ballots during the election that has been one of the biggest topics as the election came to a close. As of right now, the current standing investigations have not been able to find evidence that indicates that voter fraud was actually consuming mail-in ballots. However, Donald Trump has remained insistent on the investigation of this issue, and rulings will be held later on in the year to see whether or not voter fraud played a role in the 2020 election. 

President Donald Trump has refused to concede, and he is not willing to step down from his position for the rest of the year because he believes that voter fraud played a major part in Biden’s win.  

In the end, not only did Joe Biden earn the opportunity of collecting the title of 46th President of the United States but his Vice President, Kamala Harris, has earned the title of the first female and POC Vice President officially in office. For that alone, the initial victory will make history in American politics. Through the ups and downs of the 2020 election process, it was an extremely pivotal one at that, and its methods and importance will pave the way for future elections.