Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the 2020 presidential election in a close race, defeating incumbent Donald Trump. Although not all states have certified election results, multiple news organizations, including the New York Times, Fox News and the Associated Press, called the election for Biden on Nov. 7. Marlborough students and teachers reflected on the results of the election.
While pre-election polls showed Biden winning many battleground states by a large margin, many races were closer than expected, surprising Emma ’22, who ran the California High Schoolers for Biden Instagram.
“I was extremely shocked when I saw how close the races were and how wrong the polls had been,” Emma said.
Many people felt the election was high stakes and were stressed about the results, including Emma.
“Watching the results come in was terrifying,” Emma said. “I had a pit in my stomach the whole time wondering if it would be the last democratic election in our country and how the world would look like after eight years of a Trump presidency.”
Voter turnout in the 2020 election was the highest it has been in 50 years, with at least 148 million people voting. Almost 78 million votes were cast for Biden in this election as of Nov. 13, which is the largest number of votes cast for a presidential candidate in this history of US elections. World Languages Department Head Elizabeth Vitanza was glad to see so many people involved in the election.
“I was so happy to see all of the first-time voters show up, as well as BIPOC voters (who are so often the targets of voter suppression) get over every hurdle to show up to vote,” Vitanza said. “I think the margins in the swing states really do illustrate how every vote counts.”
Many other Marlborough students were also involved in 2020 presidential campaign initiatives. California High Schoolers for Biden Co-Chair Eva ’22 found it stressful to wait as the votes were counted.
“It was definitely surreal, knowing that all of the work myself and every volunteer put into electing Joe Biden was finally over and now all we had to do was wait,” Eva said. “I tried to not watch the news until very late at night just because it got very overwhelming and I knew we wouldn’t know the results by the first night.”
Lucy ’22 found being a poll worker during a pandemic to be a unique experience.
“This year, due to the pandemic, the polls were a lot quieter because of the large population who mailed in their ballots,” Lucy said. “We never had a line apart from Tuesday morning…It was, however, very encouraging to see such a large number of people registering as first time voters, it made me hopeful for the future of the democratic process in America.”
Eva is inspired by the fact that Kamala Harris will become the first female Vice President, the first African American Vice President and the first Asian Vice President.
“In a world where the majority of the ‘first women’ to achieve any major accomplishments are white, it is pretty incredible that our first female vice president is a South Asian and Black woman,” Eva said. “To me, as a Latina who often feels like we are the last ‘first women’ in the political world, it brings so much optimism and pride.”
Donald Trump continues to allege that the election results are fraudulent and refuses to concede the election. Emma is worried about whether there will be a smooth transition of power.
“I am genuinely terrified for the future of the country if it fails to unite behind the winner of the election,” Emma said.