America witnessed a tumultuous election week ending in a Biden, Harris win. People took to the streets across the US to celebrate Biden’s victory while Trump supporters flock to state capitols.
"The numbers tell us a clear and convincing story. We are going to win this race," Biden said, in a brief statement Friday night in which he called for calm and patience at a moment of high political tension as vote counters in the pivotal states -- Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona -- worked through mountains of mostly mail-in ballots. Biden secured the win with Pennsylvania. According to CNN, “The Democratic nominee stretched his leads in Georgia and Nevada and was holding off the President's challenge in Arizona, as vote counting continued Saturday, but Pennsylvania pushed him over the top to clinch the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.” A sentimental win for the President-Elect in his birth state.
Since election day the media covered little other than the race. On Monday, both retailers and the White House enacted security measures ahead of potential Election Day violence. Retailers boarded up store windows and add extra security at some locations. Federal agents expected a “non-scalable” fence that encompassed the White House and Lafayette and Ellipse squares.
On Election Day, Trump remained in the White House, while Biden made a final pitch to voters in Pennsylvania before taking in the results in his home state of Delaware. Voters in 32 states weighed in on more than 100 statewide ballot measures, leading 5 states to pass marijuana legalization. Voters also approved Louisiana’s Proposed Amendment No. 1 – 62 to 38 percent, which would amend the state’s constitution to specify that there is no right to abortion.
On Wednesday, President Trump prematurely declared victory. However, Biden’s electoral position only strengthened as Michigan and Wisconsin fell into his column. Trump has also been far more competitive against Biden than pollsters and the media had been predicting. The Trump campaign announced it was pursuing court actions to halt ballot counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and to not count absentee ballots in Georgia that the campaign claims arrived after an Election Day deadline.
The margins narrowed in both Pennsylvania and Georgia, as Biden moved closer to attaining 270 electoral votes. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden inched closer to winning the White House. However, Trump did not have plans to immediately concede in the election, despite the fact that Biden leads in key states. Republicans in Pennsylvania won an order from the U.S. Supreme Court requiring local officials to separate out late-arriving ballots until the legal controversy over them is resolved, but they were not granted their request that those ballots go uncounted.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that Vice President Joe Biden would win the White House, repeatedly calling him “president-elect.” Meanwhile, Trump’s unsupported claims of voter fraud have divided Republicans. There is a pervasive sense among current and former GOP officials that the president’s behavior is irresponsible. As of Friday, Georgia was too close to count – according to the Guardian, “Trump and Biden were locked in a tight contest on Friday, with the Democrat edging ahead, to get the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. For Trump, Georgia is a state he must win.”
On Saturday, after winning Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden defeated President Trump with a total of 279 Electoral College votes above the 270 he needed to clinch the presidency.Mr. Trump, who was on his golf course in Virginia when the race was called, refused to acknowledge the victory and vowed to continue challenging the validity of legally cast ballots in several states. The Trump campaign has launched a flurry of lawsuits in an attempt to delay the counting of votes, but this litigation has thus far been unsuccessful.
Biden's victory is a historic milestone, as his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, will be the first woman and first Black and Asian-American person to serve as vice president.
