Few eyes were not turned toward coverage of the presidential election on Tuesday, one that was massive in terms of both turnout and implications.
The election night horse race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden saw results return from nearly 100 million people voting early, with tens of millions more voting in person, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
In the SCV, much like people across the country, voters watched the results come in largely from the privacy of their own homes. Unlike previous years, which are usually filled with large election night parties and celebrations, many voters and candidates either stayed home or joined Zoom parties where they reacted to the night’s events.
“There’s some potential things to celebrate, taking the state of Arizona was kind of a surprise,” said Chad Kambell, president of the Democratic Alliance for Action, Santa Clarita. “I mean it was projected but definitely a surprise.”
Kambell said in the lead-up to the election, DAA has helped to canvas neighborhoods and fight against the limitations that COVID-19 created. On Tuesday, a number of Democrat volunteers and leaders attended a Zoom gathering in order to watch the results come in.
“It’s very reminiscent of the 2016 election, with a lot of poor polling leading up to the election,” said Jonathan Waymire, Republican 38th Central Committee member. “Come election night, things were turning around.”
Local Republicans celebrated their various election wins at a party in the Valencia Industrial Complex.
“If we can turn it red, we’ll do our best to do so because those are the values that we stand for,” said Waymire. “This is such a tough area and it’s a diverse community.”
The night kicked off with Biden and the Democrats taking an early lead as the absentee ballots in a number of states are counted first.
However, after it became clear that Trump was going to take a lead in Florida and a number of other states became closer contests, with the ultimate result still unknown late Tuesday night.
A number of state election officials, including those from Georgia and Pennsylvania, two states considered to be battlegrounds for the candidates, would not have their total ballots counted before the end of the Tuesday night.
Officials have said that they will be continuing the count Wednesday morning, meaning that a presidential election winner will likely not be announced until at least then, or perhaps later, depending on how long it takes mail-in ballots to be counted around the nation.
As of 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported Biden had secured 223 electoral votes and 49.75% of the national vote, while Trump held 145 electoral votes — and was leading in several key remaining states — along with 48.65% of the vote. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
