2020, perhaps the most controversial year regarding the presidential election, a topic that could not be avoided, has finally neared the end. When looking on Instagram or Facebook, it is nearly impossible to not see something political, one side trying to convince the other their own views are correct. Whether you support Trump, Biden, or a third-party nominee, this year seemed to be extremely important, as both main candidates stood for completely different issues. 

The major difference between the two parties is what should be the proper role of government. The Democratic party generally believes the government has a responsibility and also the resources to help take care of the population. Republicans, however, believe that the federal government should be limited in its scope and power, and individuals and local governments are better positioned to make decisions about what is best for its population. This year, however, due to arguments on social justice and economic standpoints, the candidates took completely different stances.

Evidently, after all the strong views seen on social media and different news sources, the 2020 election had the most voters in history of US Presidential elections. Coming to a grand total of 161 million votes, a 66.8% turnout rate, it is safe to say, this election has drawn a massive amount of attention.

On Tuesday, November 3rd, my dad and I sat on our couch watching the live election updates. Many states were already called on who was to win the electoral votes, yet many of those states changed as the votes kept coming in in the early morning hours and beyond. In the beginning, the outcome seemed to be in Trump’s favor. In fact, by the end of counting, Trump received over ten million more votes in 2020 in comparison to 2016 (62,984,828 in 2016 and 74,209,754 in 2020). Yet over the course of the next few days, Biden’s votes passed Trump’s, ultimately bringing him to success, with 81,271,249 votes.

Despite the results, there have been accusations of voter fraud in favor of Biden as a result of mail-in voting and voting machine irregularities. Many Biden supporters disagree with the accusations, as they believe many of these allegations are just conspiracy theories put forth by disgruntled Trump supporters. The more liberal view is that the mail-in voting would not result in cheating and works fairly, while the more conservative view is that people could submit multiple ballots, send in ballots for dead relatives, or some votes were counted multiple times without any verification to the validity of the voter I.D.

As of this writing, many lawsuits have been filed regarding election irregularities, with some to be possibly heard by the US Supreme Court. It is impossible at this point to know the final outcome; however, the majority of Americans believe Biden will ultimately be sworn in on inauguration day, January 20th.

Similar accusations of manipulated vote counts occurred during the 2016 election, with many citing Russian interference in favor of the Republican candidate. We have seen investigation after investigation, with very little being solved or proven, and most importantly, lingering partisanship. It appears that we will have a similar division for the next four years, albeit the winning and losing sides reversed.

No matter what happens, it appears that almost 50% of the country will be unsatisfied with the election results, similar to the election from 2016. But no matter what, it is important that the American electorate maintains faith that our elections are fair and transparent so that the great social experiment of self-government, which is how America has been functioning for over 200 years, can be proven to work. The one thing that needs to come to an agreement is that our elections are fair and that everyone has faith that their vote counts.