Last week marked the end of the Presidential Election, the running candidates being Donald Trump representing the Republican party and Joe Biden from the Democratic party, as well as the Libertarian Jo Jorgenson and the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins.

On Tuesday November 3rd, many people quickly made their way to the Polling Stations across the United States in order to submit their votes. That night, as the number of electoral votes were being counted, it seemed Donald Trump was in the lead. However, the days quickly went by, and Joe Biden started taking the lead.

The results of the Presidential Election were announced the morning of November 7th, with Joe Biden defeating Donald Trump and becoming the 46th U.S. President. To many people, the results were what they expected, whereas to others–such as Cam High staff member Bryan Staples–they were surprising. 

“The biggest surprise for me was Arizona going to Biden. That was when I thought Biden was going to be President,” Mr. Staples said. “That was for me, the ‘Aha! Moment,’ where I thought Trump was going to lose.” 

Each state has a different amount of Electors. Towards the beginning and end of the election, it was realized that whoever won Pennsylvania–a ‘swing’ state which counts for 20 electoral votes–or other major states, would become President. 

Cam High staff member Chris Quinn said, “I expected Trump would win on Thursday with the red mirage. Blue wall states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, looked very good for Trump on Thursday, and even on Friday. Pennsylvania was a Keystone State, and it was predicted to be the tipping point state. That at least I got correct–I had been telling my students whoever won Pennsylvania would win the election. We got it wrong at how much better Trump did in states like Texas and Florida.” 

The voting turnout for this year was much more than previous years. According to The Washington Post, Biden won the presidency with over 75 million votes, which was 10 million more than the previous Democratic candidate. Although, this increase in voting activity has brought Trump to request a recount towards the submitted polls in Wisconsin. We have yet to find out if this recount will bring a change, or keep the voting numbers and counts previously provided the same. 

“There were recounts in 2016 and they did not shift things for more than 100 votes,” Mr. Quinn said. “They are very hard to achieve, they were not allowed access. We have not had a voter turnout like this since 1984, people are asking how Biden has gotten more than 8 million votes, while Trump won more votes than he did in 2016. This just means that much more people are voting.” 

A new President will always lead to new changes, but we are yet to know what those changes are. According to Gabriela Meda, a junior at Cam High, those changes will likely affect many of the citizens living in the United States. 

“I believe the choices Joe Biden makes from now on will affect us as a whole,” Meda said. “Mainly because he said he wants to try to fix climate change–that could definitely make an impact. ” 

However, Meda also believes that we should not fear change–even if many people will be affected by variances in everyday life inflicted by the change in Presidency.

“I do not think we should fear the changes the President will bring, because the majority of his promises are beneficial to a lot of people and the environment.”