Certification Of Electoral College Votes
The 117th United States Congress first convened on January 3, 2021, and was scheduled to count and certify the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021. There were 222 Democrats and 212 Republicans in the House there were 51 Republicans, 46 Democrats and two independents in the Senate. Several Republican members of the House and Senate said they would raise objections to the reported count in several states, meeting the requirement that if a member from each body objects, the two houses must meet separately to discuss whether to accept the certified state vote. A statement from the vice president’s office said Pence welcomes the plan by Republicans to “raise objections and bring forward evidence” challenging the election results.
On December 28, 2020, Representative Louie Gohmert filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging the constitutionality of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, claiming Vice President Pence has the power and ability to unilaterally decide which slates of electoral votes get counted. The case was dismissed on January 1, 2021, for lack of both standing and jurisdiction. The plaintiffs filed an appeal, and the appeal was dismissed by a three-judge panel of the appeals court the next day.
Finally An Answer To Why So Many People Voted For Trump
Joe Biden may have won the election, but what many of us cant seem to wrap our heads around is how Donald Trump received over 73 million votes. That means one out of every five Americans voted for him.
Isnt that incredible? I mean, I trust nothing that comes out of his mouth. Well, thats not quite true. I
Under Trump The American Dream Is Revived
Trump understands and supports the American dream no matter what you have now, if you work hard you can better yourself and positively shape your wealth and future. Clinton made it known that she would continue Obamas agenda of redistribution. What dream is there in working to see your future gains chopped up by taxation and welfare? Under Clinton I would have just held out my hand and stopped dreaming. Under Trump the American Dream is revived!
I may not like the Trump he shows his buddies in the locker room, I may not agree with his too-rich-to-care insolence or his private life with women, but I agree with his platform and passion. He gets things done and his drive is proven. He fails and he fails better.
I voted for Trump to keep the minimum wage hike down, retain our constitutional gun rights, and keeping close to the constitution and immigration. I can now start planning my next boutique without the threat of a minimum wage hike. I can afford to get sick while Im working 60 hours a week to get my business off the ground. The fear of the taxation-to-death threat will lessen. Trump is a businessman. He will pave the way for me to start dreaming again.
Until this election I was independent. This election I declared myself Republican for the first time. My friends are mostly liberal Democrats. They say Im the poorest Republican they know. I hope that the silent majority stops being bullied by the loud minority.
Heather, 43, Kansas, small business owner
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The Silent Majority Rally
A rally was organized by a recently defeated Republican congressional candidate from South Carolina. It was scheduled for 250 people and permitted in the North Inner Gravel Walkway between 13th and 14th Streets within the National Mall and featured a fifteen-foot-high replica of the U.S. Constitution.These events took place on January 5 and 6. At least ten people were arrested, several on weapons charges, on the night of January 5 and into the morning of January 6. On January 6, the “Wild Protest” was organized by Stop The Steal and took place in Area 8, across from the Russell Senate Office Building. On the same day, the “Freedom Rally” was organized by Virginia Freedom Keepers, Latinos for Trump, and United Medical Freedom Super PAC at 300 First Street NE, across from the Russell Senate Office Building.
Voting Patterns In The 2020 Election
The 2020 election featured continuity in the voting patterns of major demographic and political groups in the population, but there were a few important shifts. The gender gap in the 2020 election was narrower than it had been in 2016 as Democrats made gains among men and Republicans made gains among women. In the 2016 election, Donald Trump won men by 11 percentage points while Hillary Clinton won women by 15 points . In the 2018 election, Democrats substantially narrowed the gap with men while maintaining an 18-point lead among women. In the 2020 election, men again divided nearly evenly , while Bidens advantage narrowed to 11 points among women .
Similarly, as Biden increased his level of support among White men in the 2020 election relative to Clintons in 2016, Trump gained among White women, which had the effect of further narrowing the gender gap among White voters. In 2016, Trump won White men by 30 points . That gap narrowed to a 17-point margin for Trump in 2020 . White women, a group sometimes categorized as swing voters and who broke nearly evenly in 2016 , favored him in 2020 .
Biden received the support of 92% of Black voters, nearly the same as Clinton received in 2016 and Democratic candidates for the U.S. House received in 2018.
Party and ideology
Age and generation
Geography
Religion
White non-evangelical Protestants voted for Trump over Biden by a 14-point margin , while Black Protestants were an overwhelmingly Democratic group .
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Attempt To Overturn The Presidential Election
DemocratJoe Biden defeated incumbent RepublicanDonald Trump. Trump and other Republicans attempted to overturn the election, falsely claiming widespread voter fraud.
Mere hours after the polls had closed, with votes still being counted, Trump declared victory and demanded that the counting be stopped. He began a campaign to subvert the election, through legal challenges and an extralegal effort. Although Trump’s lawyers concluded within ten days after the election that legal challenges to the election results had no factual basis or legal merit, Trump sought to overturn the results by filing at least sixty lawsuits, including two brought to the Supreme Court, that sought to nullify election certifications and void votes cast for Biden these challenges were all rejected by the courts for lack of evidence or standing.
Some have characterized these attempts to overturn the election as an attempted coup d’état, and an implementation of the “big lie“. On October 31, 2021, a comprehensive and detailed account of the events before, during and after the attack was reported by The Washington Post.
In What Seems Like A Tight Race Theres Been A Lot Of Focus On Voters Of Color
The focus on voters of color started on election night. Trump took Florida, one of the first states to be called, creating the impression among many liberals that Biden was on the edge of losing. Many were looking for answers, and one that got a lot of attention was the fact that Biden had underperformed Hillary Clinton in Miami-Dade County, home to many Cuban-American voters.
In the last two days, weve seen numerous examinations of what happened in Miami-Dade, as well as lots of focus on Trumps gains among Black men nationwide. The fact that Trump appears to have picked up votes since 2016 with every racial group except white men also got a lot of attention .
According to the exit poll, Trump did better in 2020 with every race and gender except white men.Change from 2016:
Matt Bruenig
Its perhaps not surprising that voters of color who cast their ballots for Trump have gotten so much focus after all, Trump has made racism the core of his pitch to voters from the very beginning, when he called Mexicans rapists in his 2015 speech launching his first campaign. But as many have pointed out, theres a lot of diversity among Latinx voters in the US a categorization that covers almost 60 million people who represent more than 15 origin countries and encompass a range of generational, socioeconomic, and religious identities and not all of them necessarily had Trumps 2015 comments top of mind on Tuesday.
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White People Have Always Been The Key To Donald Trumps Success
Despite his gains among voters of color, Trumps base has always been white people. That didnt change in 2020, when a majority of white voters backed him. And since white voters comprise the majority of the electorate 65 percent according to Edison Research they make up by far the largest bloc to support him. Black and Latinx voters, meanwhile, make up 12 and 13 percent, respectively.
Much attention has been paid to a tide shift among white people in recent months. It was just this summer that many white people were said to be experiencing a great awakening, a moment when anti-racism books were flying off the shelves and participants pledged to do better by learning about white supremacy and how to dismantle it.
White voters seem even more likely to vote for Trump in 2020 than in 2016, in large numbers in the majority.
A big part of progressives mission this year was getting more white people to vote against Trump. But the reality is grim: The presidential race was much closer than predicted, and thats after Trumps zero-tolerance family separation policy, after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that Trump did not denounce, after Covid-19 ravaged the country, and after Trumps impeachment. There has been no widespread rejection of Trump or white supremacy among white Trump supporters or even former supporters.
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Trumps Pitch To Black Voters Was Largely About Financial Security And Prosperity
Ationza Smith, a Biden supporter and co-founder of the activist group Revolutionaries Demanding Justice, told me that in her experience, Black Trump supporters like how hes improved employment … theyre kind of basically looking at things on a business level and not necessarily an ethics level.
And that has been the case with a number of prominent Black Trump supporters.
Rapper 50 Cent, who has vacillated in his support of Trump, noted he was a fan of the presidents tax policies, criticizing Bidens tax plan which would raise taxes on those making more than $400,000 per year and , Yeah, i dont want to be 20cent.
But while 50 Cent has a fortune valued at $110 million, the median wealth and income for a Black family in 2019 was just $24,100 and $46,073, respectively.
50 Cent would be hurt by Bidens tax plan, which stands little chance of passing if Republicans hold the Senate most Black Americans would not. But there is more to Trumps economic pitch than lower taxes. DAngelo Crosby, an undecided voter who ultimately went for Biden, noted his father mentioned he had never made so much money as he had during the past four years, and that Black Trump supporters hed spoken with had a similar message.
Crosby said people have told him, It was like, Well, I got a higher pay rate, the highest Ive ever been paid before. So I definitely think I want to stick with this president, because my moneys looking a little better.
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It’s Like Where Do We Go
These swing voters readily say that their frustrations with both a Republican Party in Trump’s grasp and with Biden leave them feeling a bit lost politically.
Georgia resident Xaveria asked a simple question: “It’s like, where do we go?”
These voter discussions were part of a series of focus groups that have been organized by longtime political strategist Sarah Longwell, the publisher of The Bulwark website who herself is a Republican who’s worked to defeat Trump.
She hears voters like Xaveria and Christine and says they reject Trump and GOP candidates trying to be “Trumpy” themselves. She says such voters are open to voting for Democrats, but the party also needs to nominate more moderate candidates to make these voters feel welcome there.
These moderate-to-conservative voters “are very clear that they feel politically unmoored, politically homeless,” Longwell said in an interview.
“I really view these voters as up for grabs in 2022 and 2024,” she said. But Longwell says it matters who the candidates are and how the parties see themselves.
And Longwell says it makes such voters worth watching. It also makes them potentially pivotal. “Right now, people who are willing to change their vote from one party to another really hold the keys to political power,” she said.
The 2020 Election By The Numbers
Its almost over. Yesterday Electoral College electors convened virtually or in person in state capitals across the country to cast their votes. The result was what everyone expected, the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States. With the election now essentially settledRepublican lawmakers may make one last doomed attempt to reverse the results when Congress meets on January 6 to confirm the Electoral College voteheres one last review of how the vote went.
The Electoral College
In 2016, seven electors declined to vote for the candidate they were pledged to. That was the highest number of faithless electors ever, with the exception of the election of 1872. That year sixty-three electors broke their pledge. They had a good reason to do so, however. They were pledged to Democratic candidate Horace Greeleyhe of Go West fame. Greeley died three weeks after losing to Ulysses S. Grant and before the Electoral College met. His pledged electors were understandably reluctant to vote for a dead man. Three electors, however, did cast their votes for Greeley.
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Voting Methods In The 2020 Presidential Election
The 2020 election brought a huge change in howAmericans cast their ballots. As some states looked to adapt to challenges in administering elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic, large numbers of voters were offered expanded access to absentee and vote-by-mail options in the 2020 election. As a result, a record number of voters said they cast their ballots this way . And smaller shares of voters said they either voted in person on Election Day or in person before Election Day .
A majority of absentee voters said they had previously voted this way before the 2020 election . Still, a sizable share said the November election was the first time they had cast an absentee or mail ballot.
Sizable shares of voters across racial and ethnic subgroups cast absentee or mail-in ballots in the 2020 election though there are some differences in voting methods when comparing across groups. White voters were most likely to say they voted in person on Election Day . Comparably smaller shares of Black and Hispanic voters said the same.
Black voters were more likely than White or Hispanic voters to say they cast their ballot in person before Election Day .
Voters ages 65 and older stand out in their voting behavior: 55% say they voted absentee or by mail in the 2020 election 13 percentage points higher than the share of adults under 65 who cast a ballot by mail.
