The Election is Over, Now What?

Many people expected to wake up on Wednesday morning to learn who will be the President of the United States for the next four years. Similar to the 2016 election where Donald Trump was announced as the winner the next day.

Some of these people hoped that Joe Biden would win the election to take over the country come January. While others contested that Trump should continue on into a second term.

Unfortunately, when Wednesday morning came, neither one of these outcomes came to light.

According to the Associated Press, Biden is currently the lead 264 electoral college votes to Trump’s 214. The next president only needs 270 electoral college votes to win office.

As for regular votes, Biden holds a 50 percent lead with 72,444,570 to Trump’s 68,896,525 that consists of 48 percent of the votes.

The hold out states are Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Additionally, a call hasn’t been officially made for Alaska.

Meanwhile, Trump has decided to take legal action, making accusations of voter fraud and requesting that halts on ballot counting in some areas.

He’s requested a recount in Wisconsin and filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.

In the case of Pennsylvania, Trump is asking that ballots received after election day not be counted. The state’s system currently calls for ballots postmarked before election day be counted.

Trump is hoping that the Supreme Court will override the state’s decision and find in his favor. Especially, since he’s responsible for appointing at least three of the justices that sit on the Supreme Court.

He was able to get newly appoint Judge Amy Coney Barrett in her seat a couple of days before the election.

Many see Trump’s actions as an attack on the integrity of the voting process and an attack on democracy, in an effort to hold on to the presidency.

Political analysts are reminded of the 2000 election with Georgia W. Bush v. Al Gore. In that election, voters didn’t find out the winner until more than a month later due to counting in Florida.

Bush had won the electoral college while Gore won the popular vote.

The 2000 election serves as a case study that shows the American public will have to wait and hopefully the winner will be revealed a lot sooner this time around.

However, Trump's current actions show that if announced as the loser, he will not concede the presidency without a fight.