Ava Mac ‘21, Editor-in-Chief & Mackenzie Pagels ‘21, LyonLife Editor-in-Chief
The days following Nov. 3 have been nothing less than turbulent as the highly contested presidential election dwindles down to a close. With the projected vote total indicating the highest voter turnout since 1900 and the number of early ballots reaching a record-breaking 101.2 million, the results of the election have taken days to be confirmed.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more citizens participated in early voting via absentee ballots which has slowed the counting process. As of Nov. 11, votes are still being counted. On Nov. 7, however, the Associated Press named Democrat Joe Biden the president-elect after his win in Pennsylvania, giving him the required 270 electoral votes to take the presidency. Since then, he has continued to gain more votes as states count mail-in ballots which have leaned towards the Democratic party.
This has received a considerable amount of objection from the Republican party and President Trump himself. “Our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated,” Trump said in a statement Nov. 7. “The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots.”
While encouraging his supporters to doubt the validity of the election, Trump also added that plenty of the ballots contained misinformation and in many states, including Michigan, there were more total votes than the number of registered voters. Trump continued to go on about the reliability of counting rooms and hidden ballots that Democrats “stole” in order to get him out of office. A Nov. 7 tweet from the president stated in all caps, “THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!” At this point, Trump is doing all he can to prove a point that would later be shown as incorrect.
Other remarkable claims made by the Trump campaign plea that the total votes were not in his favor due to Sharpie pens not being eligible for ballots, lack of transparency, and many others. As the counting of the ballots has taken longer than expected due to COVID-19, many Republicans assumed they were being tampered with, and that this election process is a scam.
As stated in the U.S. Constitution, all votes must be counted efficiently and completely. When further looked into, none of the claims and lawsuits turned up any evidence regarding the election. After an array of debates and accusations, Joe Biden is officially named President of the United States in late October.
Lyon Life 