Joe Biden was declared the president-elect by the Associated Press on Saturday afternoon. Following Election Day, Americans were left waiting four days for the states to count the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots and news sources to call the race.
During those days of waiting, there was speculation over possible fraudulent voting activity, questions over why the counting was taking so long and media coverage that differed slightly between organizations.
This year, about 66% of the voting-eligible population voted in this election, according to the Washington Post, and a record number of people voted by mail. While in the 2016 election, the winner of the presidential election was called overnight, that did not happen in this general election.
IU-Purdue University Indianapolis professor of political science Aaron Dusso said the process is being done professionally and the reason it is taking longer to count is because of the number of mail-in ballots.
“Sure, I wish they had the answer on election night, but what’s important, of course, is counting all the ballots and we have an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots which take longer,” Dusso said.
President Donald Trump spoke on election night about how he believed he had won the election and that there were fraudulent ballots being cast that could cost him his win. He also said certain states which had originally indicated him as the winner of their electoral votes but were trending toward Biden at the end of the night, including Nevada and Arizona, needed to stop counting ballots.
IU professor of political science Marjorie Hershey said this statement did not make sense because it implied that mail-in ballots were not as legitimate as those cast in person.
“That’s just pure nonsense,” she said. “He is implying that somehow the real vote was already counted and that all those folks who voted by mail, including members of the armed forces and people who are unable to leave home, somehow aren’t worth as much as the rest of us.”
Hershey said members of the armed forces only needed to have their ballots postmarked by Election Day, so it is possible that some of their votes won’t be received until more than one week later.
IU-South Bend professor of political science Elizabeth Bennion said Trump's statement about voter fraud is an issue because the president has such a loyal following.
“I think that it is a problem that the president has chosen to try to undermine the public’s faith in our democratic process and procedures because he has many followers who believe what he says whether or not what he is saying is factual,” she said. “He will lead many of them to believe that the process is corrupt and that the process is illegitimate and that he has won the election and now the election is being stolen from him.”
Bennion said it made sense for him to make that statement on election night because Biden supporters were more likely to vote by mail, according to a poll by the Wall Street Journal. This meant Trump knew Biden was going to look better in each state on Election Day than on the days following, she said.
This statement was not surprising because Trump had indicated in the days leading up to Election Day that he would not accept a peaceful transition of power if there was fraud, Hershey said. He also said he would declare victory on election night the weekend before Nov. 3.
Regarding coverage of Election Day, Bennion said she noticed news outlets were more cautious about projecting states for a certain candidate than they were in 2016.
“They really wanted to be sure not to call things too quickly, knowing that there would be a large number of outstanding ballots that might not be counted on Election Day,” she said.
Bennion said she saw more organizations following the AP's lead when calling states and focusing on explaining possible results or examining certain counties’ or states’ voting patterns.
However, the AP, Fox News and Politico projected that Arizona’s electoral votes would go to Biden on Tuesday night. No other news outlets have called Arizona, as of Sunday.
IUPUI professor of law and public policy Sheila Kennedy said she was surprised Fox News called the state for Biden on Tuesday because they are a more conservative news outlet.
“I thought that was fascinating,” she said. “If Fox had called it for Trump that would have been one thing.”
Following the decision to project Arizona for Biden, Trump’s political adviser Jason Miller called Fox News and asked them to retract the call. Fox stuck with the call.
Trump believes that as a more conservative news outlet Fox News should only portray Trump in a positive light and almost act as an arm of the Republican Party, Bennion said. This is why Trump got upset at the projection and why he has criticized Fox News when they have featured guests who do not favor Trump, such as former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Specifically, the Fox News reporters have recently attempted to prove they are not a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, Bennion said. This call is one example of that, she said.
“Fox News has tried more generally to suggest that they are a news organization that makes independent news decisions and that they are not beholden to anyone, including the president,” she said.
In the end, the call regarding Arizona was not the determining factor in who was projected to win the election because Biden won Pennsylvania, which had 20 electoral votes. These 20 votes put Biden over the 270 mark even without Arizona.
Although Biden was already selected as the president-elect on Saturday, there are still ballots being counted.
One of the key points in this election, brought forth by Trump telling polling sites to stop counting ballots, is the idea that every vote counts. Georgia, which has not yet been projected for either candidate, only has Biden leading by about 10,000 votes. Biden is leading by about 30,000 votes in Arizona. Biden won Wisconsin by 20,000 votes.
All of the ballots, including military and provisional ballots, will not be counted for a long time. Even though they may not change the results at this point, they will be counted.
Bennion said there are so many factors that differ in each state that make it difficult to tell when states will complete their ballot counting. Dusso said it could be weeks before they are all counted.
