Are the Elections Really Over?

Lina Maria Zuluaga | November 6th, 2020

It’s been a wild year to say the least. In case you missed the latest episode of the show, let me recap for you what 2020 had in store for us last week…

After four days of namely the most anticipated election of the year, media outlets have projected the next US president. During the early afternoon hours of Saturday, November 7th, Joe Biden was called the winner of the US Presidential race based on the assessment of the votes counted up to that point. The assessment made by these organizations considered that Biden had a lead significant enough in multiple states to acquire the 270 electoral college votes required to win the presidency. Despite these results being only projections, it is worth noting that they are not arbitrary assessments. The organizations that draw these conclusions rely on experts, who are very cautious in their judgments because they do not want to get these projections wrong. And they often do not (1).

But I think we might be all too familiar with the popular saying that every rule has its exception, to be aware that these results are not set in stone until the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, where the electors finally meet and cast their votes. The votes casted this day officialize the end of the elections (2). So, until then “anything” could happen, like it did in the US Presidential race of 2002.

In 2002, after a tight presidential race, media outlets projected Al Gore as the winner of the American elections. However, when the Supreme Court of the US stepped in and halted the recount in the state of Florida, the election results changed and Bush was handed the presidency instead (3). Given this— and in view of Trump’s threat of taking the results to the Supreme Court and his campaign filing lawsuits already challenging votes— many of us have started wondering if the elections are really over and whether Trump could still stand in the way to a Biden presidency…Experts argue that the 2020 elections are entirely different and that said lawsuits are unlikely to change the results of the projected. As a matter of fact, two lawsuits have already been dismissed (4). However, in the name of non-partisanship and fact-based journalism, let’s analyze the facts.

“The lawsuits filed by Republican lawyers are unlikely to change the results of the election given they involve a small percentage of ballots in comparison to Biden’s lead.”(5)

One of the lawsuits in Georgia involved allegations of 53 missing ballots. Notwithstanding, Biden has been leading in Georgia by 12,291 votes as of the morning of November 10th. Similarly, in Pennsylvania the lawsuit in question involves only 93 ballots in comparison to the 46,256 votes Biden is leading in the state by. In Nevada, where Biden is leading by at least 36,186 votes, the lawsuit involves 3,000 “out-of-state” ballots. As a matter of fact, some experts argue that the multiple lawsuits’ real purpose is to create distrust among Trump’s supporters— who are now calling voter’s fraud with unsubstantiated allegations— instead of actually trying to win any kind of legal dispute (6). However, it is worth noting that even though the Pennsylvania lawsuits in question cannot foreseeably alter the results of elections (in the opinion of the experts), Trump’s campaign request for the Supreme Court to discard the ballots received three days after the elections in the State could transform the electoral process for future elections. That, however, is a concern for a future blog issue.

As for now, I think it’s safe to say that the elections are essentially over and we, therefore, have at least four years of a Biden presidency ahead of us. However, if we have learned one thing this year is that we need to learn to expect the unexpected. For now it seems that love does trump hate after all.

Or does it?

Find out in the next episode of 2020. Season finale coming up.

Endnotes

1. Sam Levine, "Biden is the Projected Election Winner. Can Trump Still Stand in His Way?," The Guardian, last modified November 8, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/07/joe-biden-donald-trump-us-election-lawsuits-recount-supreme-court.

2. Congressional Research Service, The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline, (2020), https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11641

3. VOX, "Can Trump steal the election?," YouTube, November 8, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rnb0j-bNmM.

4. Levine, "Biden is the Projected Election Winner. Can Trump Still Stand in His Way?"

5. VOX, "Can Trump steal the election?”

6. VOX, "Can Trump steal the election?”