The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 3 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on November 13, 2020.
Emma Overton ’21
Editor-in-Chief and News Editor
On Saturday, November 7, three days after Election Day on November 3, Democrat Joe Biden was declared winner of the 2020 Presidential election by the Associated Press and other major news networks, defeating incumbent Donald Trump to become the 46th President of the United States. President-elect Biden served as Vice President under President Barack Obama and served in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009. Biden’s running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, will make history as the first female, Black and Asian Vice President.
Needing 270 electoral college votes to win, Biden amassed a total of 290 electoral votes, while Trump totaled 217 electoral college votes. The delay in declaring a winner of the election was a result of the increase in mail-in voting due to safety concerns over voting in-person on Election Day during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Biden assured voters on November 4 that “[e]very vote must be counted” and that “[n]o one’s going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever,” Trump, around 2:00 a.m. on November 4, “wrongly declared himself the winner of the election,” according to The Washington Post. Trump stated, “[t]o me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this. And as far as I’m concerned, we already have.”
Bucking tradition, Trump has refused to make the typical concession call to Biden. As reporter Gillian Brockwell of The Washington Post explains, “[h]istorically, when a presidential candidate has lost, he has written, telegrammed or called his opponent to offer congratulations…” Instead, the Trump campaign has committed to “…prosecuting [their] case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated,” according to a November 7 statement. However, as NPR explains, “Trump’s campaign has spent much of the past week in court with little success and without presenting anything close to evidence that points to a fraudulent result.”
While the Presidential race and House races have been called for the Democratic Party, the future of the Senate remains in question, as two seats have been forced into runoff elections. The Democratic Party currently has 46 votes, while the Republican Party has 50 votes, with 51 votes being needed for control. According to NBC, “[c]ontrol of the Senate is likely to come down to the January 5 Georgia runoff, when voters could be asked to decide whether both Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler should continue to serve in the upper chamber.”
For insight into the impacts of the 2020 election on Lake Forest College students, Stentor staff spoke with several students about their 2020 election experience.
Audrey Bailey ’22 of Monterey, California, “voted early and by mail” because she “wanted to make sure my vote was received and counted.” She noted that “[b]efore Election Day and during the week of November 3, I was extremely stressed waiting for the results, but I’m relieved with the outcome.”
Bailey further shared that she “did research on the candidates beforehand, but I knew for sure who I didn’t want to vote for so it wasn’t a difficult decision. Because I’m not as familiar with my local government, I researched those candidates quite a bit.”
Similar to Bailey, Alex Cantey ’22 of Bentonville, Arkansas shared that she voted early. Cantey stated that she “felt good for the presidential election…even though I live in Arkansas (a strong red state). On more state and local levels I was hopefully to put new, younger, female politicians into seats of power but most of them did not go that way unfortunately which was a bit disappointing.”
Additionally, Jenna Stern ’22 of East Windsor, Connecticut shared that she voted in person and voted in an election for the first time. She said she “waited in line for an hour and a half” at her polling place, and noted that while waiting to vote, “everybody around me was good about wearing masks and social distancing…”
Stern further stated, “I knew a lot about the presidential candidates just from my classes and general news intake, but before voting, I sat down with my family and spent some time researching the other candidates on our ballot.” Describing her experience, Stern stated that “since Tuesday, my family had election coverage on the [televison] 24/7 until the winner was announced.” Summarizing her thoughts about the outcome of the election, she shared, “I am relieved that Trump will be out of office and I believe that is so worth celebrating. But I want to continue to put progressive pressure on very…moderate Democrats [which is] what the Biden-Harris administration will be.”
