The big surprise last election was the number of Midwestern states that flipped and voted for Trump after consistently voting for the Democratic candidate for six elections. Most of the Midwest voted for President Barack Obama, including North Caroline in 2008. It was nerve wracking waiting since many of those states took longer to count the high volume of mail-in ballots and early votes but the majority of votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and in the end Pennsylvania went to Joe Biden. The majority of votes went to Trump in a number of other swing states: Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Florida. However, those three key Great Lakes States plus Georgia and Arizona really made the difference this election. As it stands, Joe Biden will receive 306 electoral votes to 232 for Trump.
Because of COVID this year, the volume of mail-in ballots and early voting was unprecedent. Like many people predicted, votes for Trump were more likely to be cast in person and votes for Biden were more likely to be mailed in. With the internet, we had access to hour by hour updates of vote counts with live updates to maps reporting the percent of votes for each candidate as well as the percent of votes counted. So, early on it looked like that the election would go to Trump but as more votes got counted the more Biden closed the gap and slowly but surely pulled ahead winning not only the popular vote but also the necessary electoral votes to win. As the tide began to turn, things got tense around polling centers that were working to count the votes.
A poll watcher credentialed with the Democratic party described the aggressive tactics employed to disrupt the ballot count: “Picture in your mind. A room of mostly African American women sitting at tables trying their best to do very detailed and important work while many angry, agitated, mostly white men stood overtop of them peppering them with questions and accusing them of fraud or mistakes, for hours and hours. All the while a mob of angry mostly white people pound on the doors screaming ‘Stop the Count’ and dozens of heavily armed police officers patrol the room and barricade the door.”
A first-time ballot counter in Detroit described the same situation: “The Detroit police were there to diffuse the situation. They barricaded the doors and tried to cover the windows with paper so people couldn’t see in, and they told us it was okay to keep doing our jobs. I never felt afraid for my safety, because the police and the Department of Elections handled the situation very well. There was security in the parking lot, so we could safely walk to our cars. …It’s just alarming to see that this is the time we’re living in, that people just get beside themselves trying to stop the democratic process.”
The stakes for this election were high on both sides – for many the conservative appointments of judges and government response to the covid-pandemic. Many hoped for a clear repudiation of Trump’s leadership and administration, and while there may be some redemption for us the country is still very divided. And, the country has a long way to go towards healing. When it came down to 3,000 votes in Georgia or 30,000 votes in Pennsylvania its incredibly clear how important that every vote be counted and more than that every vote counts.