2020 United States Presidential Election

The **2020 United States presidential election** was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of Incumbent Democratic President Bill Lutz and incumbent Vice President Charlie Roan defeated the republican ticket of Florida Governor Harold Russell and Georgia Representative Jarrett Wilton. The election took place against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 recession. Due to the ongoing pandemic, a record number of ballots were cast early and by mail. As a result of a large number of mail-in ballots, some swing states saw delays in vote counting and reporting.

## Background

### Procedure

Article Two of the United States Constitution states that for a person to serve as president, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a United States resident for at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the various political parties in the United States. Each party develops a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Primary elections are usually indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The presidential nominee typically chooses a vice presidential running mate to form that party's ticket, which is then ratified by the delegates at the party's convention (except for the Libertarian Party, which nominates its vice-presidential candidate by delegate vote regardless of the presidential nominee's preference). The general election in November is also an indirect election, in which voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors then directly elect the president and vice president. If no candidate receives the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, the United States House of Representatives will select the president from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes, and the United States Senate will select the vice president from among the candidates who received the two highest totals. The presidential election occurred simultaneously alongside elections for the House of Representatives, the Senate, and various state and local-level elections.

## Nominations

### Democratic Party

Every incumbent president seeking another term has been renominated by their party since 1884. Lutz and Roan easily won the Democratic nomination in April of 2020. They were formally nominated at the Democratic national convention on August 25, 2020.

### Republican Party

Throughout the Campaign, there were multiple candidates trying for the Republican Nomination. In the end, it was Florida Governor Harold Russell who won the nomination in June of 2020. He was formally nominated at the Republican national convention on August 18, 2020. He choose Jarrett Wilton, fellow opponent for the nomination and U.S. Representative from Georgia as his running mate.

## Election Day

More than 158 million votes were cast in the election. More than 100 million of them were cast before Election Day by early voting or mail ballot, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The election saw the highest voter turnout as a percentage of eligible voters since 1900. Bill Lutz surpassing Barack Obama's record of 69.5 million votes from 2008. The Lutz-Roan ticket received over 85 million votes the most votes ever in a U.S. presidential election.

On the night of November 3rd, Lutz and Russell were close in the electoral college due to a string of southern states being called in favor or Russell. As the night went on, Lutz pulled together numerous victories in the northeast and mid-west which put him in a comfortable lead. On the dawn of November 4th 2020, Lutz was declared the winner despite counting going on in states such as Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina. At 2 P.M. est, Lutz delivered a victory speech on the White House ellipse. A few hours later at 5 P.M. est, Harold Russell delivered his concession speech from the Governors mansion in Tallahassee, Florida.

Lutz won 36 states, and the District of Columbia. totaling 398 electoral votes. Russell won 14 states totaling 140 electoral votes. This was the biggest electoral college victory since the 1988 election.