Election ends with historic results

This November everyone’s social media and phones were blowing up with election campaigns and results. Joe Biden managed to beat out President Trump by getting the popular vote and electoral college vote. 

Many of you may be wondering what the electoral college is. The electoral college is a group of people who officially elect the next president. The electoral college was founded in the Constitution. Every state has representatives in the electoral college, but the number of representatives is decided by the state’s senators plus the state’s representatives in the house. For example, Indiana has 11 electoral votes. The electoral college has 538 electors, 270 of them have to vote for the same person for that person to be elected the next president. 

Now that you understand what an electoral college is, it is easier to talk about why the presidential candidates spent so much time in some states. If you turned on the news during the campaign stage of the election, you heard about Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania a lot. Those states had the most electoral votes and they were swing states. A swing state is a state that could go either way. For example Indiana is almost always Republican and California is almost always Democratic, but Arizonia will go either way depending on who the citizens vote for. 

The 2020 election was a lot different than any other election. Because of Covid more people voted from home and many precautions were taken during rallies and debates. 

“Covid did not affect voter turnout,” said Government teacher Heather Levitt. Voter turnout actually increased during this election. The mail-in ballots have been used for years, but this year because of Covid they were useful in letting people safely vote. 

Even with Covid restrictions and ups and downs during the election season, Biden will be the 46th president of the United States.