By EMILY PRINSTEIN

To many, the election process may be seen as confusing, especially this year with the greater amount of emphasis being placed on each step in the electoral process. Due to the pandemic, many people have voted by mail, causing results of the election to be unclear at first. This has caused many people to ponder the possibility of voter fraud and if the election was rigged for one candidate. 

The claims suggesting the election had been tainted with voter fraud have now been disputed. According to the Associated Press, it has been made clear that the election’s integrity was upheld. However, this claim, in the eyes of many Americans, is still not so clear though. 

After the votes from each state showed President-Elect Joe Biden to be the winner, the worry of faithless electors came about. “Now it is time to turn the page, to unite, to heal,” he said after he had won the election.

Electors are nominated for each state by their respective political party. These electors then take an oath to vote the way in which their state casts their votes. Each state gets a certain amount of electoral votes based on their population, meaning bigger states like California and Texas have a larger impact. 

This worry of faithless electors was washed away on Dec. 14th after the outcome of the electoral votes ended with a win for Biden. To win the presidency a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes. California’s 55 electoral votes are what placed Biden over the top at 306 votes to President Donald Trump’s 232 electoral votes. 

Later that night, Biden gave a speech about how monumental his victory is for America, stating that “ence again in America, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people have prevailed. Our democracy — pushed, tested, threatened — proved to be resilient, true, and strong.”  
The next step in the election process is for Congress to meet and certify the electors votes. This meeting will take place on Jan. 6. After this the process of transition of power will begin and President Elect Joe Biden will take office on Inauguration Day which is Jan. 20.