7. A college senior is now mayor
- In Camp Hill, Alabama, Messiah Williams-Cole, a 21-year-old college student at Auburn University, has been sworn-in as mayor of the town with a population of 955.
- Williams-Cole said that he wants to “increase unity in the town, like doing quarterly town hall meetings that are more informal and that celebrate the community.” He advised that he decided to run for mayor because he wanted to see some changes in the town.
6. The polls were wrong
- Hidden Trump voters, re-alignment and outright media bias all combined for polling results that did not align with the outcome but set so much of the conversation in the nation was wrong — again.
- Polling that indicated former Vice President Joe Biden had a 17-point lead in Wisconsin, a safe lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona and also an average 7.2 point lead nationally for former Vice President Joe Biden was completely wrong,
5. California’s governor wants more mail-in voting
- In California, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has said that the state could move toward an all mail-in voting system for the future. This is due to there being more voter involvement with early voting in the state, which is true for most states.
- Newsom added that he’ll “discuss that with the legislature,” but he thinks “making voting easier, providing more voice and more opportunity is fabulous.” California used statewide mail-in voting this election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
4. Landslides and waves did not happen
- In the lead up to yesterday’s election, there was talk of a landslide, for both Biden and Trump, and talk of red and blue waves, but that clearly did not happen. Democrats remain in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, while Republicans seem poised to hold on to their control of the U.S. Senate.
- Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) fell to Democrats, while Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) hung onto their seats. Outstanding Senate seats still in play include Gary Peters (D-MI), Susan Collins (R-ME) and David Perdue (R-GA).
3. Every statewide amendment passes except one, every expected congressional candidate wins
- All six constitutional amendments in Alabama passed except Amendment 2, which was an amendment to restructure parts of the judicial system. Other amendments included reorganizing the state constitution, affirming “stand your ground” laws in churches in two counties and forbidding non-citizens from voting.
- While most Alabama members of the House of Representatives only faced token resistance, if any at all, Representative-elects Jerry Carl and Barry Moore won their races and guaranteed that Alabama would send the same number of Republicans back to the House.
2. Tuberville crushes Jones
- In an unsurprising victory, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville has become the next U.S. Senator from Alabama, defeating U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) by a wide margin.
- Jones was always a long-shot, as he was in 2017, but the blowout in the race surprised most. Not many predicted Tuberville would trounce Jones by roughly 23 points. Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan reacted to Alabama’s election results by declaring, “Alabama’s voters have spoken loudly and our majority is sending a new U.S. Senator, Tommy Tuberville, to be our voice.”
1. This will be a mess
- We still have no clear winner in the race for the presidency. As of now, Trump is leading in Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, while Biden has taken the lead in Wisconsin and holds a lead in Arizona and Nevada.
- It’s anticipated that final election results will be available before the end of the week, but America is girding itself for an election battle in the courts. There is no guarantee that results will be known today or even this week, as it could take a couple weeks before results are final, too.
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