Guest Editorial: Keep calm and count every vote
President Donald Trump may have defied the odds and the pollsters and pulled off another stunning Electoral College squeaker in the 2020 election, but here’s the deal: at this point no one knows for sure and the only way to do so is to patiently count every vote.
At this moment, Trump is leading in the key states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, while former Vice President Joe Biden leads in Wisconsin, Nevada and Maine. According to CNN, the overall Electoral College tally stands at 224 for Biden and 213 for Trump.
Right now, however, millions of votes are still to be counted and, indeed, in some places — including North Carolina — many mailed ballots have yet to arrive at local boards of elections. Pennsylvania alone could have as many as a million votes still to count. Nevada has announced it won’t know its final results until Thursday.
All of which makes Trump plainly and irresponsibly wrong — as he did last night — to declare victory and claim that he would somehow launch an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court to stop vote counting. Meanwhile, Joe Biden may lose the election, but he was right when he said, “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election. That’s the decision of the American people.”
The bottom line: Thus far, the 2020 election has proceeded smoothly and with a heartening lack of problems or disturbances. All Americans — including the candidates — would do well to keep calm and patient so that it can finish that way.
Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch
