FOR the first time since after George W. Bush defeated Al Gore for President in 2000 through absentee ballots, the winner of the 2020 presidential election amid the pandemic is still too close to call, with so many early voting mailed in ballots still left to be counted.

This is a result of different state rules on when early voting mailed-in ballots may be counted and reported, especially in some battleground states ruling to count mailed-in votes after November 3.

Before midnight on election night, however, projection of winners by various news media organizations, including Fox News, showed Joe Biden leading.

By Fox News’ report, 238 for Biden and 213 for Trump in the road to the 270 minimum electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

Already, Trump had been flooding social media with accusations that votes are being stolen from him without any basis in fact.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Trump declared that he’ll go to the Supreme Court to push for “all voting to stop,” baselessly calling the continued vote count a “fraud” as key states sort through a historically high volume of early and mail ballots driven by the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump also wanted a recount of states where he lost to Biden, but would not want the states where he is leading recounted.

Before this delusional proclamation of victory by himself, Biden himself gave a speech, declaring that “we believe we’re on track to win this election”, and not declaring that he already won. On the other hand, Trump did claim he won big.

Biden said he’s “optimistic about this outcome,” but that “we’re going to have to be patient… It ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”

On social media, Biden posted, “Keep the faith, guys. We’re gonna win this. It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.”

The Biden campaign said they will fight with Trump in court should the President bring this battle up to the Supreme Court.

Many Democrats are heartbroken to see how Trump remains competitive in many Republican strongholds despite his failure to fulfill his solemn oath to defend and protect the Constitution and the American people, his abuse of power and threats against democratic institutions and processes because of his selfish personal and political interests, despite the death of more than 200,000 Americans in the pandemic because of Trump’s failure in leadership.

Looking at the bright side

Amid the escalating threat of the coronavirus pandemic, joblessness, disrupted economic and social activities, a divided nation and toxic political climate in the country, a record number of Americans voted early — more than 100 million before the November 3 election.

Perhaps the better way to put is this: Because of the crises of our times that have been causing a lot of uncertainties about the future, and because of the threat of their votes being thrown away because of dirty political tactics to disenfranchise voters, American voters have decided to mail in their votes early, or went to the polling stations to cast their sacred votes and make sure they exercise their power to decide what kind of life they and their families would be living in the next four years.

According to the U.S. Elections Project, the total early votes amounted to 101,167,740. Nationally, voters have cast 73.4% of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election which recorded 139 million votes.

Comparing early vote count: In 2016, only 47 million Americans cast ballots before Election Day vs 2020’s more than 101 million votes.

The breakdown of the 2020 early votes: In-Person Votes: 35,923,053; Mail Ballots Returned: 65,244,687; and Mail Ballots Outstanding: 26,858,126.

How are the early voting numbers divided according to party affiliation?

We can have an idea based on the party registration statistics provided only for states that have party registration.

Reporting states with party registration data: AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK, OR, PA, SD.

The breakdown:
Democrats: 22,174,934 votes (44.8%)
Republicans: 15,119,146 (30.5%)
Minor parties : 334,919 (0.7%)
No Party Affiliation 11,871,101 (24%)
TOTAL: 49,500,100

How did the states perform in early voting compared to 2016?
As reported by Axios based on the data gathered by the U.S. Elections Project: Hawaii (110.6%), Texas (108.3%), Washington (105.4%), Oregon (104.8%), Montana (102.4%), and Colorado (101%) all surpassed 2016’s total turnout via early voting.

Other states that amassed a huge portion of their 2016 totals include:
New Mexico: 98%
Utah: 97.6%
Nevada: 96.7%
North Carolina: 95.4%
Florida: 94.7%
Georgia: 93.9%
Arizona: 92.9%
Tennessee: 89.6%
New jersey: 88.7%

The battleground states

The other side: Some key battleground states are lagging behind the frontrunners. Pennsylvania, for example, only reached 40.7% of its 2016 total turnout — but this is the first general election for which the state has implemented no-excuse absentee balloting. Historically, only about 5% of Pennsylvanians have voted by mail.

Other key battlegrounds and their current early turnout against 2016 totals:
Wisconsin: 64.7%
Iowa: 60.5%
Michigan 58.3%
Ohio: 53.5%

Worth noting as reported by Axios: Mail-in ballots face deadlines. While some states only require that ballots be postmarked by or shortly before Election Day, others require ballots to be received by election officials on Tuesday.

Swing states Florida and Wisconsin, for example, require mail-in ballots to be received by 7 and 8 p.m., respectively, on Election Day.

But the Supreme Court recently shut down Republican attempts to trim mail-in deadlines in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Many states also can’t begin counting their mail-in ballots until Election Day, which is likely to cause a backlog in results — and could shift results in Biden’s favor as more get counted in the following days.

Voter motivation

These early voting numbers are just part of the bigger turn out numbers we have yet to get after the polls close on November 3, and after all votes are counted.

Trump used COVID-19 super spreader crowded public campaign rallies to display support and enthusiasm among voters while Biden held drive-in rallies in addition to virtual campaign rallies to follow social distancing and other public health safety measures.

However, if we look at these numbers, it appears that more Democrats than Republicans were motivated to cast their votes early breaking all records.

These numbers are also in congruence with polls conducted just before the November 3 elections which revealed Biden leads Trump by 10 percentage points nationally, 52 percent to 42 percent. This is according to an average of national polls since Oct. 26 reported by the Washington Post.

Biden’s margin in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin is nine points. It’s five points in Pennsylvania, five in North Carolina, four in Arizona and three in Florida.

Whatever the final result may be, America wins as this election’s voter turnout may very well speak volumes about how they have come out of their shells of apathy. We learn the hard way that our votes indeed matter and are motivated to change the course of our nation’s history after four years of the Trump presidency.

We all look forward to a better, brighter, and stronger America through the power of our sacred votes and our vigilance to make sure all votes are counted and reflect the will of the American people in this democracy.

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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

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Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at [email protected], or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.