But there are still several steps in the electoral process before President Donald Trump’s presidency ends on January 20 and Biden takes office.

Let’s take a look at the key dates leading up Biden becoming the 46th President of the US.

December 8

News organisations typically project who has won the election shortly after polls right after Election Day.

However, this year, those projections took several days, primarily, due to an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots cast amid the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

At this particular situation, news organisations using a variety of factors, determine that one candidate no longer has a path to victory. Official counting continues for several days, and sometimes weeks, after a winner is projected. These tallies are subject to legal challenges and recounts, the criteria and timeline of which are regulated under individual states’ laws.

Regardless of state’s laws regarding recounts, the state must meet the deadline. December 8 is the deadline- to appoint the electors who will decide the winner based on a certified final count.

It is in this scenario Trump has not conceded and his campaign has vowed to challenge the election results in certain states.

December 14

On December 14, electors across the country cast their votes by paper ballots in their respective states and the District of Columbia, which has three electoral votes. Those results must be delivered to the US capital and other relevant officials by December 23.

There are 538 electoral votes, and the number of votes in each state matches how many senator and representatives that state has in Congress .

Washington, DC also has three electoral votes. In most states, all electoral votes are given to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state, although this is not necessarily required by law.

Two states – Maine and Nebraska – have slightly different systems: Two electors vote for the candidate that wins the state’s overall popular vote, while a third elector votes based on which candidate wins the most Congressional districts in that state.

Currently, 33 states and Washington, DC, have laws that require electors to vote for the candidate that wins the popular vote in their state.

January 6

The House and Senate hold a joint session to count the votes sent by electors across the country . If one ticket has received 270 or more electoral votes, the president of the Senate, currently Vice President Mike Pence, will announce the winner of the election.

If there is any objection to electoral returns from any state, the Memebers of Congress can express their objections by writing by at least one member of the House and one in the Senate.

If neither presidential candidate wins at least 270 electoral votes, the House decides the election, based on the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. If required, the House would elect the president through a majority vote.

January 20
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office at noon on Inauguration Day. Vice- President elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in shortly before that.

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All eyes are on the key battleground states of Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The results of these states are crucial for both contenders.

Donald Trump prevailed in the hotly contested Rust Belt state of Ohio- one he seized in 2016 and which is key to his efforts to win reelection over Joe Biden. The Republican incumbent won one of the key battlegrounds, Florida while Biden got Arizona.

As of now Biden had 238 electoral votes against Trump’s 213. A candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency.

Biden, searching desperately for states to recapture from Trump, was eyeing the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that sent Trump to the White House in 2016.

So far Trump has won Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

Biden meanwhile has taken Democratic-leaning states like California, Colorado, Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Why Electoral College is crucial in United States election?

The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes, adding up to a total of 538 votes.  More populous states get more electoral college votes than smaller ones.

A candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes to win the election. In every state except two- Maine and Nebraska- the candidate that get the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.

Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the US.

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“When @JoeBiden and I are in the White House we’ll listen to scientists, promote masks to save lives, implement nationwide testing and tracing, and ensure vaccines are free to all,” she tweeted.

The bitter and divisive race for White House between Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden comes in the midst of coronavirus pandemic which has infected over 92 lakh people and claimed the lives of more than 2,30,000 others in the country, making it the worst hit nation from the deadly virus.

While the formal election is today, nearly 93 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, including 33 million in-person votes and 58 million mail-in ballots. To be elected as president , a candidate should win at least 270 votes in what is called the Electoral College.

The 2020 US Presidential election is much different than previous elections as people cast their ballots amid rising anxiety and worry about the country’s future due to the pandemic and eight percent unemployment.

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Among the top reasons for interest in the US President is a meeting between popular American rapper Lil Wayne and other rappers and Trump after the recent racial attacks in the United States. Racism is one of the hot topics in this election, and rappers supporting US President’s policies has turned the attention of many.

Meanwhile in-person voting has begun in some parts of the United States. Voters were urged to vote early through mail-in ballots, to avoid queues amid the coronavirus pandemic. More than 99.5 million early votes have been cast so far. Additionally, about 28.2 million mail ballots are yet to be returned to polling authorities. As a result, over 100 million votes would have been cast and recorded even before the Election Day.

As the election day kickstarted, the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris urged for in person voting by saying “ mask up and find your polling place”.

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The midnight vote began today with voters choosing their preferred candidates for US President and New Hampshire governor, as well as federal and state legislative seats.

The 2020 US elections and congressional races, came amid a surging COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Americans will decide the fate of incumbent President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden through their votings.

To win the presidency, either Trump or Biden must acquire over 50 per cent of the electoral vote, which is 538 in total. This means each candidate must get a minimum of 270 electoral votes to clinch the presidency.

Joe Biden is currently leading Donald Trump in the national polls. But leading in polls does not guarantee victory. Hillary Clinton also had a clear lead over Trump in the polls for the entire 2016 campaign. She ended up losing the race.

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Biden is set to close his campaign in Pittsburgh where he made his maiden campaign appearance in April 2019.

Held in the middle of pandemic that has claimed many American lives, aside from a series of civil rights protests and fallen economy, the US election this year is deemed to define the future course of America.

Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Iowa are the key states also known as the swing states, where the spotlight are on. A majority of the voters from these states flipped from supporting Obama to Trump in 2016.

As Donald Trump seeks re-election, predictions show a better chance for Joe Biden who holds a clear advantage over the President across four of the swing states.

The polls also indicate that the presidential election is getting tighter even though Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to maintain substantial lead over Republican’s Donald Trump.

In the national polls, Trump continues to trail with a 42% chance as compared to a 51% of Biden, according to the latest Reuters poll. Similarly, a New York Times poll showed Joe Biden holding a clear advantage over 4 important swing states- Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona. Biden’s electoral position appears to put him in a stronger position than any presidential candidate since 2008.

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has sought a decisive mandate from Americans so that no amount of legal battle can overturn the poll results. Earlier Donald Trump hinted that he is gearing up for a legal battle in the counting of mail and absentee votes post the election

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Harris’ first name is pronounced KAH’-mah-lah or, as she explains in her biography, ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark.”

But mispronunciations have been rampant in the days since the California senator became the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman named to a major party’s ticket. Pence referred to her as kah-MAH’-lah, putting his emphasis on the second syllable, at events last week.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel did the same on Wednesday, as did Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday, the day after Harris delivered a prime-time speech accepting the Democratic nomination a speech he indicated he watched.

Harris’ supporters say the pattern amounts to a deliberate effort by Trump and his allies to portray Harris the daughter of immigrants as someone who does not belong at the top ranks of politics.
The mispronunciations follow a string of attacks that include racist and sexist memes and questioning about whether Harris, who was born in California, is eligible to serve as vice-president because her mother was Indian and her father Jamaican. (Constitutional scholars and other legal experts say there is no question that she is eligible.) It is an effort to diminish her, said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. It’s designed to signal difference. Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to questions about the errors.

To be sure, Harris isn’t the only politician who has watched other politicians and voters trip over her name. Former President Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya, used to crack jokes about being a skinny kid with a funny name.

Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, whose father was from Malta, went mostly by Pete though his campaign made posters, chants and T-shirts with the pronunciation Boot-Edge-Edge. In the introduction to her biography, Harris says her name means lotus flower.

It’s a symbol of significance in Indian culture, she wrote, noting a lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom. When she first ran for the US Senate, her campaign produced a video with small children demonstrating the proper way to say her first name.

But her defenders say Harris is well past the point of introduction especially with Republican opponents. Harris served as California’s attorney general for seven years before being elected to the Senate in 2016. Since then, she’s made headlines for tough questioning of Trump appointees and raised her profile even more with her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

And even before she was elected to the Senate, Trump knew who she was, he donated to her 2014 campaign for attorney general.

Yet, Trump has continued to get her name wrong, as have his allies.

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani called Harris Pamela during an appearance on Fox News. Pence mispronounced her names multiple times during a stop last week in Iowa, where he warned a cheering crowd that the November election isn’t about a choice between Republicans and Democrats or conservatives and liberals.

I think the choice in this election is whether America remains America, he said, going on to mispronounce her name moments later.

Pence pronounced Harris’ name correctly during an appearance on Fox News on Friday, hours after the exchange between Louis-Dreyfus and Yang.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson grew agitated when a guest corrected him last week after he also pronounced Kamala incorrectly. So what? he said, before mispronouncing her name again and complaining about liberals being too sensitive.

McDaniel also got the pronunciation wrong earlier this week during an appearance on Fox News, even though the host questioning McDaniel was saying it correctly.

Many people, particularly people of colour, relate to Harris having her name mispronounced because they face the same situation in workplaces and elsewhere, said Goss Graves. She’s grappled herself with people mispronouncing her first name it’s fah-TEE’-mah and whether, or when, to correct them.

But it’s a very different thing, she said, to be a candidate for one of the highest offices in the world and have your colleagues and members of the media repeatedly mispronounce your name or not care enough to get it right.

When people are running for the highest levels of government, there’s an expectation they will be afforded with dignity and respect, she said.

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