Close race
Will it be Donald Trump again, or Joe Biden will make it to the White House this time? It may take time — maybe days — to know who is going to be the 46th American President, as nearly 100 million Americans voted by post due to the coronavirus pandemic; and counting such a big number was unlikely to complete on election night.
However, 16 hours after the vote closure, Democratic Biden was leading with 224 electoral votes as against his Republican rival’s 213. Not just that, Biden was also ahead in the key states — though marginally — of Michigan (16 electoral votes), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Niveda (6), with bulk votes counted. Maintaining the lead would well mean Biden nearing the magical mark of 270. Trump, on the other hand, was leading in Pennsylvania and Georgia — having 20 and 16 electoral votes at stake — and a victory in these states would take his tally 249.
Whoever wins this nail-biter, the election is all set to turn controversial as Trump has already declared his victory and made it loud and clear that any outcome to the contrary would land the election in the Supreme Court. The court challenge to the presidential vote may well be one more reason for a delayed result. Things, however, seem to be happening just as Bernie Sanders had predicted in his comments about Trump’s modus operandi to make the vote controversial.
However, in a big surprise to many, the Election Day went by without any violent incidents, despite concerns among citizens, politicians, and law enforcers in the days leading up to the polls.
Several businesses around the country boarded up their windows to protect themselves from damage or looting, and a temporary wall was erected around the White House. Additional security was also deployed around Biden’s house in Delaware.
Attempts to rig the election were very much on too. Trump’s postmaster general appears to be violating a court order by slowing down the delivery of thousands of mail-in ballots in key states, hoping to keep them from being counted by the deadline. Mind you, the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that it may limit the amount of mail-in ballots that can be counted in key states. Besides, the FBI has already announced that it is investigating robocalls received by hundreds of thousands of voters urging them to “stay safe and stay home” or to remember to vote “tomorrow”, which would be a day too late.
The only silver lining there appears to be that the intelligence community is not linking them to a foreign government. But given who the recipients were — residents of Democratic strongholds — it is not hard to suspect who was behind it. Could it be the candidate — or party — that was allegedly helped by a foreign disinformation campaign in 2016 and then governed as the disinformer-in-chief for the next four years?
Some polling stations also reported delays due to long lines or technical issues. Some areas also reported voting machine problems and had to revert to paper. The long lines, however, were intentional. Republican state legislatures have long tried to make it harder for Democrats to vote as a means to suppress turnout. In some cases, they went even further. In Texas — a large, usually Republican state that saw a very strong performance by Biden — they went to court to throw out 127,000 votes from a heavily Democratic county. State and federal courts, however, saw through the plan and rejected the lawsuits.
At the end of the day, America had a choice between a well-respected veteran politician and the man whose incompetence led to about 250,000 American deaths due to the coronavirus. The signs so far indicate that they chose the former.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th, 2020.
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