Hey guys – thanks for hanging in there with us, in terms of the sound quality and quick, hurried nature of our first podcast. Just in case you were relying on the podcast entirely, we wanted to give you guys a quick tally, and then dive into the nitty gritty here today with more results to report. And just so you know, we will CONTINUE doing these updates AS NEWS BECOMES available, until a winner is announced. And not be VERY CLEAR: that has NOT happened yet.
The current Electoral College vote count is this-
BIDEN: 238
TRUMP: 213
And yet, despite this President Trump declared himself the winner, despite the fact that he is actually behind as of now, in terms of the Electoral College.
So what states are still in play? And how many electoral college votes does each one have? Let’s go over the details.
SO, I am gonna list the states that are still in play, in order of how many votes they have, starting from the state with the MOST votes, to the one with the least.
- Pennsylvania (20)
- Michigan (16)
- Georgia (16)
- North Carolina (15)
- Wisconsin (10)
- Nevada (6)
- Alaska (3) —> but Alaska is VERY likely a Trump state. Not considered a swing states like the others on this list.
So, Joe Biden needs 32 Electoral College votes and Trump needs 57. That said, he is leading in many of these states right now – Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maine. Those are some heavy hitter states. This whole thing make the election SO MUCH CLOSER than anyone anticipated.
Some other interesting races that I wanted to highlight for you guys are:
- Senate
The Senate currently sits at 45 v. 47, in favor of the Republicans, as well as two independent seats. The Dems flipped two seats, but the GOP flipped one as well. There are 6 Senate races not yet called… But it looks like it’s leaning towards the Republicans. We will let you know in coming episodes, how the Senate shakes out in the end!
- House
The House currently sits at 191 v. 185 in favor of the Democrats. Even though the dems are still in control though, this was a big night for Republicans as they have had a net gain of 5 seats, including my district where Kendra Horn, the ONE Democrat elected in Oklahoma, lost her race to Stephanie Bice. BUT there are 59 races still to call for the house. Again, we will let you know in coming episodes, how the House shakes out in the end! These races are important to see what the President may or may not be able to accomplish in office.
- Graham v. Harrison
SO not sure how many of you guys will remember, but we highlighted a race to watch in South Carolina where Lindsey Graham, a tenured Republican Senator, was getting a run for his money at the hands of a young, Ivy League educated Black man named Jamie Harrison. Harrison proved to be a worthy opponent, out raising and spending Graham but ultimately losing to the 17 year Senator.
- Puerto Rico
OK guys this is getting crazy town! So as of the time I am writing this, 95% of the vote is in for Puerto Rico’s referendum on becoming a state, and so far, 52% have said yes while only 47% said no! Now, just as a reminder, this is a non binding vote… Meaning that if it passes as a “yes,” they still don’t have to do anything about it. But it means the people of PR DO want to become a state. Pretty interesting! We will keep you guys posted on this as well.
- Also… Something happened that is RIGHT out of an episode of West Wing – A North Dakota Republican died in early October of COVID 19… But just won his election from beyond the grave!
Many people are not happy about this, and it certainly does leave you scratching your head on what comes next. But the race was for The House of Representatives. And there was an ACTUAL West Wing episode where this exact thing happened. And just like the West Wing episode, the State Attorney general said that he would have the state’s Republican Party have another race this spring to decide on a replacement for him.
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AGAIN, I wanted to remind you guys that we are not leaving you hanging here with these results. We WILL be covering this on an ongoing basis and keeping you current on all the various
My favorite way to watch the results for the Presidential election has been a tool on the NPR homepage. If you go to NPR.org, then swipe the map over to the “margins” tab, it brings up this sort of bubble map… At the top you will see the current electoral college tally, and then the DARK blue or red bubbles are one already decided… But the light blue or red ones are ones that are leaning either way. You can hover over each lighter state to see what percent of their votes have been counted and what the breakdown currently is for either candidate, and how many electoral college votes each state has. Pretty cool! I just KEEP hitting refresh!
TODAY I WANTED TO LEAVE YOU WITH THE QUOTE: “Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person. If you can’t feed 100 people, feed just one.”