It's Nov. 5, it's 7 p.m. and the election was two days ago. We don't know who the president is, and we might not even know tomorrow.
That's because in the year 2020, mail-in and absentee ballots were more common than ever. They take longer to count, and the election is already very close. Here's where we stand as I write.
With Biden in the lead, this looks like good news for Democrats. But things didn't go as well for Democrats in down-ballot races as they hoped. The Dems actually lost seats in the House, while maintaining their lead and lost crucial Senate races, leaving incumbents like Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnel and Susan Collins in power.
But what do we know for certain went well? There were a lot of "firsts" all over the country, bringing new intersectionalities and underrepresented groups into government, unprecedented turnout and continued resilience of democratic structures. Here are a few of this Nov. 3's bright spots.
Glass ceilings — shattered
2. This election broke voter turnout records. The Election Project tracks voter turnout each election cycle and shows higher turnouts in many states.
"'We broke a 120-year record on turnout — the kind of turnout people only dreamed of in past elections, said political scientist Julia Azari of Marquette University in Milwaukee in an interview with the LA Times. But that massive turnout did not clearly establish one party as the dominant force in American politics. By some measures, 'it didn’t change much,' she said."
While it didn't change much electorally, more turnout simply means more voters voices are being recorded when it comes to the decisions we make as a nation.
3. A third bright spot in this election is the way that, so far (knock on wood), Trump's calls to stop the vote count have largely failed. Each and every vote is being counted.
Biden, as well as members of the president's own party have called for the count to continue as part of the democratic process, and his attempts to take the measures to court have failed.
So far, the measures in place to hold our democracy together are holding up against Trump's relentless attacks. These are the things we can look to as positives if the rest of this drawn- out, stress inducing vote count is a nightmare.
Comments