November 6, 2020
Election Timeline
PAGE 2
How it happened It has been an eventful four days and counting since the first ballots were tallied in New Hampshire.
Dixville’s board of electoral votes on Tuesday morning. (Photo courtesy of The Associated Press) By Jack Margaros @JackMargaros
Dixville Notch, N.H. has a unique Election Day tradition. When the clock strikes midnight on Nov. 3, local media and residents cram into a small but meaningful space. The room is plastered with American flags -- some lining the tables placed in the middle, others acting as curtains for the windows. Food spreads are essential -- a staple for any small town gathering. It’s been that way for 60 years. Placed in the corner
of “The Ballot Room,” behind town officials, is a big, wooden board, with a phrase across the top that Dixville Notch surely takes pride in. “First in the Nation” Dixville Notch, along with two other small New Hampshire communities, is typically the first to cast their ballots in the presidential election. The gathering was much smaller this year due to coronavirus concerns. Nonetheless, the event signified the beginning of one of the most important elections in recent American history. What happened in
the following three days did not necessarily come as a surprise, but was no less embarrassing to a country founded on the premise of democracy. Americans understand the weight this election holds. Already, there have been more voters than the 2016 election. The Washington Post projects a 66.4 percent voter turnout, which would be the largest dating back to the election of 1900. It was seen even before election day. The U.S. Elections Project reported that over 101 million Americans voted early.
The first polls closed around 7 p.m. on Tuesday and results started to roll in. It was a pretty tight race at the start, to the delight of Republicans. States that seemed like a lock for Biden were turning red. Standing in front of a packed crowd in the East Room of the White House, President Donald Trump prematurely declared victory in his first address to the American people during the election. Additionally, Mr. Trump claimed that Democrats were trying to “steal the election.” “Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are
closed!” he said in a tweet. He’d been foreshadowing for months that mail-in ballots and the Democratic party were going to cause a rigged election. It wasn’t a matter of if Mr. Trump would make these claims -- it was when. This tweet, along with 11 other tweets in the span of four days were labeled asmisinformation. On the other hand, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the American people. He remained optimistic, but did not declare victory, saying “we believe
