By Marcel Mbamalu
As votes were being counted in the final few states, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Friday morning, said Joe Biden’s electoral victory was “imminent.”
She said Biden would soon no longer be referred to as the former vice president but “president-elect. It is a happy day for our country…because Joe is a unifier,” Pelosi said in a press conference held in the U.S. capitol.
Meanwhile, a top election official in the state of Georgia said he would expect a ballot recount in the battleground state. “With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.
President Trump had taken a strong early lead in the state that carries 16 electoral votes and has not voted for a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992.
But, with 99 percent of the votes counted as at Friday, Biden polled a slim vote lead. There are 4,169 ballots left to be counted as at last night.
Biden also took the lead in Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral votes. While Trump would need to win all the remaining states (Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona) to really move back into the contest, Biden needs only 17 electoral votes to be announced President-elect.
The least of the remaining states (Arizona) has 11 electoral votes, meaning that the former vice president would need to win just one or two of them to wrap up his victory.
At 213 electoral votes, Trump is trailing Biden’s 253 by as much as 40 votes. The remaining states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia amount to 53 electoral votes.
Biden was already scheduled to speak Friday night, as Trump Campaign said the election was not over. The Trump Campaign’s general counsel, Matt Morgan, Friday afternoon said Georgia was headed for a recount. Trump has repeatedly insisted on not conceding to Biden without a legal fight, even if he surpassed the 270-electoral-vote threshold.
Trump campaign said it disputed Biden’s lead in four states — Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, saying there were irregularities in Pennsylvania. Trump claimed he was on course to win Arizona.
Tuesday’s presidential election was surprising only in the context of the polls that led to the speculation of the possibility of a ‘blue wave.’
No doubt, demographic change in the U.S. played out in favour of Democratic Party, which enjoyed support of minority groups and youth population.
With GOP’s seeming loss, it may face a more serious challenge winning presidential elections in the next decade, as this appears a replica of the political events that followed the Great Depression of the 1920s when republicans lost a monumental election.
Just the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and Donald Trump’s alleged poor management of the pandemic became top campaign issue for Democrats in the 2020 Presidential election, the Great Depression of the 1920s had met the Republican Party in office, as the ruling party at the time was previously winning elections handily.
The Great (economic) Depression and its impact on American lives at the time helped the Democrats to sweep into the Presidency and the Congress. Subsequent political and demographic events within the period also foretold the future of the Democratic Party, albeit positively.
In the elections of 1932, 1936 and 1940, first-time voters voted two-to-one in favour of Democrats, and stayed loyal to the Party throughout their lives.
It was that block of voters that allowed the Democrats to dominate American politics from the 1930s until nearly the end of 1960s.
It has only been one time since then, when in a series of elections, one party had really totally dominated the youth folks, and that is last five presidential elections, including last Tuesday’s, where the youth voting population has been broken about three-to-two Democratic.