According to The Associated Press, as of Nov. 7, 2020, at 1:08 p.m., Former Vice President Joe Biden, has officially received the Presidency with 290 electoral votes. All information in this article, while accurate at the time, is now outdated. Please refer to our breaking news article for updated information.

Over the past couple of days, a huge amount of information, much of which has been conflicting, has been spreading across social media about the current United States Election.

The big thing that has had people confused, is why the election is taking so long, and why many states, that seemed decided one way, suddenly switched, seemly overnight.

2020 has been a year unlike any other, and this election has been no different with many records being broken including the record-breaking number of mail in ballots. This year has seen a huge increase in mail in ballots, as many people were unable to go out to the polls, due to the on-going global pandemic. This means, for people who wanted to avoid the risk of exposing themselves to COVID-19 were left with two options in order to vote. One was early voting, which concluded, depending on the before the election or in Texas’s case concluded on Oct. 30, and the second was mail in ballot s.

No matter what choice voters made, preparations had to be made before the election, as both mail in ballots and early voting concluded prior to election day. This means that all the mail in ballots that are currently being counted were sent by individuals who voted in advance. The major question that comes with this is “why are votes still be counted if these mail in ballots were sent in so early?”

The main reason for the delay in results, due to mail in ballots, is in many of the states still counting votes mail in ballots were not allowed to be opened and counted prior to election day. No matter how early the vote was sent in, the vote still couldn’t be counted until election day. Due to the record number of voters who voted by mail, that there is going to be huge delays in results, as every needs to be counted.

There are a lot of claims that the votes just “magically appeared,” however, as well all know, due to COVID-19 the mail has become backed up due to massive increased use. From Amazon to Walmart, much of the products American’s are now purchasing have been through online transactions. These means that the postal service has already been working over capacity since the start of the pandemic. Due to the massive increase of mail in ballot the postal service was recently overloaded again and is now having to catch up, meaning these votes that “magically appeared,” were actually already present and accounted for in the U.S. postal service and they have just now reached their destination.

According to The Associated Press’s live tracker, as of Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., the race is standing at 264 electoral votes for Former Vice President Joe Biden and 214 electoral votes for President Donald Trump. Both candidates have a clear path to victory, with 60 electoral votes remaining. The current states still counted their votes are Nevada with 6 electoral votes, Georgia with 16 electoral votes, North Carolina with 15 electoral votes, Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes and Alaska with 3 electoral votes.

According to The Associated Press’s live tracker, as of Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., Trump needs 56 electoral votes to win his second term, while Biden needs 6 electoral votes to win the presidency. As of Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., North Carolina and Alaska have Trump leading in the number of votes counted so far, while Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia currently has Biden leading in votes. As of Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., it seems that Nevada, Pennsylvania and/or Georgia will be the grand decider of this election. Despite Nevada only having 6 electoral votes, it is currently needed, along with the other currently red leaning and blue leaning states, for Trump to win his second term. On Biden’s side, it one of the few states leading in blue, that is still counting votes, meaning its 6 electoral votes could be the last six votes he needs to receive the presidency.

The 2020 presidential election has seen many records broken including the number of voters who exercised their right to participate in American democracy. This year roughly 150 million American exercised their right to vote, which is over 12 million more than in 2016’s presidential election. 2020 is the year of democracy, so remember that every vote counts, as we all wait patiently for the 2020 presidential election results.

As of Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., the election result is unknown, however it’s important to be patience, practice civility, remember that every vote counts and remember that no matter who wins the presidency, that this election year, democracy won.

More Information about each states policy regarding mail in ballots, can be found at https://www.vote.org/absentee-ballot-deadlines/