Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people have made sacrifices canceling and

postponing events to encourage people to stay home. One event that will be greatly affected is the election, which will see a decrease in in-person voting and a rise in absentee voting. While the election will end on November 3rd, the legal battle will have just begun. 

     Unless the election is won in a clear landslide by either party, voters should expect that whichever candidate loses will be filing multiple lawsuits and demanding a recount. Many discrepancies come with mail-in voting. States like Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania don’t count ballots received after Election Day. President Trump has already stated that he plans to question the legitimacy of mail-in ballots if they are received after Election Day.  He has also admitted that he is considering defunding the US Postal Service, he believes that absentee votes will create inaccuracies. 

    “Now, they need that money in order to make the Post Office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network. “If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped.”

     While officials believe that no wide-scale fraud is likely to happen with the mail-in voting, this election will still be very tricky. Election Day will most likely drag on to election week, and possibly election month. History teacher Dr. James Foley offered some insight.  

     “Given the fact that some states have over one million absentee ballots, and indeed, some states have several million absentee ballots, it might well take several days or weeks to count all of the ballots.” Dr. Foley said.  “We Americans will have to be patient and allow the process to unfold and count the votes and then determine who has won the presidential election.”