Millikin campus community reflects on 2020 election results
On Saturday, Nov. 7, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden was projected to become the 46th President of the United States after his victory was called by all major news networks. The news of Biden's victory sparked celebration in cities across the country, most notably in areas such as New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
With votes still being counted, turnout for the 2020 presidential election hit a 50-year high, exceeding the record set by the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama. Currently, 148 million votes have been tallied, with former Vice President Biden winning more than 75 million — the highest number for a presidential candidate in history while President Donald Trump received more than 70 million votes.
According to the Associated Press and data from the United States Elections Project, the 2020 election saw the highest voter turnout since 1968.
Emotions have certainly been running high throughout the U.S. and around the world with reactions to the presidential election. Millikin University students and faculty recently shared their thoughts with the Herald & Review on topics geared toward political divisions and the presidential transition.
"I'm glad that it's come to a culmination and I'm hopeful for a peaceful transition of power as we've had in this country for the majority of the time," said Ed Weber, clinical instructor of management information systems. "I'm really hopeful for the future, that we can get started on getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control so we can get back to some sort of normalcy. I'm very hopeful for the future right now."
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Ed Weber, clinical instructor of management information systems
Laura Zimmerman, assistant professor of biology and chairwomen of the Macon County Democrats said, "It's nice to have the result being final. We're very excited to have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House."
The Biden/Harris administration is historic because Harris will be the first female, Black and South Asian vice president.
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Caira Butler
Caira Butler, a political science major at Millikin, said she hopes the divisions will heal in the interests of what is best for the country.
"I think we saw a lot of things we've never seen before and that is both fueled by the fact that we are in a pandemic and that we had many different elements playing into it, like the mail-in ballots … it definitely caused something way out of the norm," Butler said.
Butler added, "We're in a state in this country where we are either divided and not going to be able to accept the results of the election on either side or we're going to be able to work together, come together and understand that the results of the election may not have been what other people were hoping for, but hopefully we'll be able to come together and find some type of compromise in the middle so we can get things done rather than stay divided."