The 2020 presidential election remains undecided, and the Associated Press has not yet called a winner in several critical states.
Thus far, former Vice President Joe Biden leads with 264 electoral votes, while current President Donald Trump has 214. Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Alaska are set to be the deciding states in this election. Biden leads by a slim margin in Nevada, while Trump holds a narrow advantage in the other three states.
Still, both campaigns claimed early on Wednesday morning that they would win the election, according to their predictions regarding states that are uncalled.
Voters in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada can still “cure” their votes. Meaning that, if their ballot had been rejected for some reason, they can resolve whatever issue there was with the ballot and have it counted.
Common reasons for ballots to be rejected are that someone did not sign it, signed it incorrectly or their signature did not closely resemble the signature in their voter registration file.
In the East Room of the White House shortly before 2:30 a.m. on election night, Trump claimed to have won the election. His remarks came as many battleground states were considered too close to call at the time and millions of votes across the country had yet to be counted.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country,” Trump said. “Frankly, we did win this election.”
Just before Trump’s remarks, Biden said at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. that it’s “clear” that he will reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. He also said his campaign was “on track,” but Biden did not claim victory.
“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won, but I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” Biden said. “It ain’t over until every vote is counted.”
Approximately 159.8 million people are projected to have voted in this election so far, which is the highest voter turnout in the United States since 1900. In 2016, the total number of votes cast was 136.6 million.
One key issue in the race between Trump and Biden was the COVID-19 pandemic.
National pundits speculated that the pandemic would be a leading issue for seniors in this election, as they are one population that is especially susceptible to the virus.
The Trump administration had already taken steps to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but critics claim that Trump downplayed the severity of the pandemic, oftentimes going against the advice of medical doctors on his coronavirus task force. At a September rally in Ohio, just days before he was diagnosed with COVID-19 himself, Trump said that the coronavirus “virtually affects nobody.”
Biden has criticized the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19 throughout the election season, and if elected, Biden said his plans will be more focused on testing and tracing. He also said he wants to make coronavirus tests free for all Americans and double the number of drive-thru testing sites.
