Votes Are Still Being Counted

Updated November 4, 2020, 4:45 p.m. | By Rebecca Zissou

Americans nationwide are still eagerly awaiting the results of Tuesday’s presidential election, wondering who will take the oath of office on January 20: President Donald Trump, a Republican, or former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

By 4:45 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast, Biden and his vice presidential running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, had secured 253 electoral votes. Trump and his running mate, Vice President Mike Pence, had secured 214 electoral votes. A candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes out of 538 to win the presidency.

Meanwhile, in the congressional races, Democrats are on track to keep a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But experts say it could be a while before we know which party will have a majority in the U.S. Senate.

The final outcomes in several states, including the swing states of Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, remain unclear. Tens of millions of Americans nationwide voted by mail, many more than in any previous election. Processing mail-in ballots can be time-consuming, and many are still being counted.

Election experts say it could be days—or even weeks—before a winner is declared in many races, including for the presidency.

“There are certain states where the vote counts take a long time,” says Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “It’s not a . . . sign that anything is wrong.”

This presidential election has already been unlike any other in U.S. history. Never before have Americans had to cast their ballots during a pandemic, fearing that going to the polls might expose them to a potentially deadly disease. 

Earlier this year, many states changed their voting rules and procedures to keep voters safe and to allow more people to cast their ballots by mail. In addition, tens of millions of Americans cast ballots in person during early voting periods before Election Day to avoid crowded polling places on November 3.

Still, this isn’t the first presidential election in which the results weren’t immediately clear. The most recent example was in the year 2000, when Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore competed for the presidency. The results of that election remained unclear for more than a month because millions of ballots in Florida, a key swing state, needed to be recounted. On December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the recounts, effectively declaring that Bush had won Florida—and the presidency. 

Whichever candidate wins this election will face enormous challenges. Tackling the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 232,000 people in the United States and affected nearly all aspects of daily life over the past eight months, is expected to be a top priority. 

Indeed, in pre-election surveys of voters, the government’s pandemic response was one of the most important issues. Another was the U.S. economy, which has been devastated by the pandemic. Millions of people have lost their jobs, and more than 100,000 businesses have permanently closed. Other key issues for voters included health care, immigration, addressing racial injustice, and protecting the environment. 

With so much critical work to do, Americans are eager to have the outcome of the election settled. But experts urge everyone to stay calm as the votes are counted. 

“This isn’t the first time in our history that we don’t have results right away,” says Ray La Raja, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “Americans are going to have to be patient, and we need leaders in both parties to remind people to stay calm.”