It’s official: Joe Biden has officially been declared the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election.
On November 3, 2020, millions of voters across America took to the polls and to ballot boxes to decide whether Donald Trump would remain in the White House for another four years, or if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden would take over the position as the 46th President of the United States.
After days of waiting for votes to be counted, resulting in a much closer battle than what many expected, a result was finally announced—with Joe Biden reaching 290 electoral college votes.
Former President Barack Obama has said he “could not be prouder” to congratulate “my friends” Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The news broke on November 8, when Biden was called as the winner of crucial battleground state Pennsylvania.
The news was also historic as Kamala Harris made history as the first Black and Asian-American woman to be elected vice president.
It was a long few days waiting for a result, and below we give a breakdown of all the moments you may have missed.
Donald Trump’s Reaction
Trump first broke his Twitter silence on November 3, claiming he was ahead of Biden in the polls—a statement which the social platform was marked as disputed and misleading, an action they would continue for the days proceeding the vote counts.
“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Poles are closed!” he tweeted.
Many were quick to note the President wrote “Poles”, which was quickly deleted and posted again with the correct spelling of “Polls.”
‘Stop The Counting’
While votes were being counted across the U.S., Donald Trump also called for voting to be halted in several states.
Appearing in the East Room of the White House on November 4, the President falsely claimed that he had already beaten Joe Biden, and the election was being stolen from him in a massive act of fraud. He vowed to challenge the results in the Supreme Court and declared that he had already won states that were still counting votes, including Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country,” Trump said. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
Trump’s False Claims Of “Voter Fraud”
While votes were being counted across the country, Donald Trump continuously attempted to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral votes—claiming mail-in ballots were “illegal”.
On Friday, November 6, Trump sought to further undermined the confidence of the nation’s election, making unsupported accusations during a White House press conference about the integrity of the results in his race against Biden.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” Trump told reporters. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
The speech was filled with such falsehoods in the opening five minutes, many American and global news broadcasters decided to stop broadcasting and cut away to shoot down the accusations.
As MSNBC news anchor Brian Williams said on air, “Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States.”
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the election, despite Mr Trump’s repeated false claims.
This contrasted with Biden’s approach, with the former Vice President reassuring the country that vote counts could be trusted while urging patience from the American people.
“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working,” said Biden. “It is the will of the voters. No one, not anyone else who chooses the President of the United States of America.”
Who Did The Swing States Side With?
The race for the presidency is usually decided in a small number of “key battleground states” that switch party allegiance between elections. In 2016, it was the battleground states that saw Trump claim the presidency over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Below, a breakdown of the key swing states and which candidate they sided with for the 2020 presidential election.
Florida: This election, all eyes were on the state of Florida—the swing state with the largest population and the most electoral college votes—which has voted with the eventual winner in all but one presidential election since 1964. This election, Trump was able to keep the state.
Ohio: No President in modern history has won the presidency without winning Ohio, another of the large swing states. Trump was able to keep his hold of the mid-west state during this election.
Wisconsin: Wisconsin sided with the Democratic candidate in all presidential elections from 1988 through 2012, and in 2016 Trump managed to flip the state. For this election, Wisconsin decided in favour of Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Arizona: The state last voted a Democratic candidate for President in 1996, and for this election, Biden managed to flip it.
Michigan: Trump won Michigan by just 0.2 percentage points in 2016—the narrowest margin of any state. For the 2020 election, Biden flipped the state to win 16 electoral college votes.
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania was one of the largest states to swing to Trump in the 2016 election, and it was one of the key states that were going to decide who won the presidency. The pivotal swing state’s 20 electoral college votes put Biden’s total at 273, just over the 270 needed to win the presidency.
Nevada: Biden held a tight lead in Nevada, and it was one state that many were waiting on that would push the former VP over 270 electoral college votes.
Georgia: Trump’s lead in Georgia continued to narrow on November 6, and as more postal votes were counted Biden came closer to flipping the state. He eventually won the state.
