Three Key States That Will Determine The Next President: What Are They?

It is not normal that the night after an election there is still so much uncertainty about who will be elected the next President of the United States of America. But, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, there has been an unprecedented amount of mail-in or absentee ballots this year which may cause uncertainty in the outcome of the election for days and maybe even weeks to come.

The hope is that ballots will be counted by the end of the day either today or tomorrow and the American people will begin to be able to see more clearly who the president will be, come Jan. 20

Right now there are three states that really look like they will determine the outcome of the election. These states are Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

North Carolina and Georgia are both undecided currently but looks to be leaning towards a President Trump victory in both of those states. This would push Trump to 245 electoral votes and would put Biden to 244 electoral votes assuming he wins Nevada, which was won by Hillary Clinton back in 2016. That leaves Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania as the last three states to declare a winner and puts all of the attention on them to decide the outcome of the election.

President Trump and Vice President Biden will need to win two out of the three of these final states to achieve the 270 point threshold which guarantees victory for the candidate.

With such a narrow margin in both Wisconsin and Michigan, there is a possibility that Biden takes Wisconsin and Trump takes Michigan. Leaving the lone state of Pennsylvania to decide the outcome of the election. Now, at the time of publication Biden has a 21,000 vote lead in Wisconsin and a 33,000 vote lead in Michigan. So if he holds both of those states he will reach the 270 electors that he needs.

If Trump comes back in one of those states the attention gets shifted to Pennsylvania which only has 64 percent of its votes reported. And at the time of publication Trump has a 520,000 vote lead in that state. Some 64 percent of the votes reported are extremely low for a state the day after the election but because of the current pandemic mail-in votes and absentee ballots are causing this delay.

Both Candidates gave speeches on election night and both gave indications that they believed that they would be or already have won the election. President Trump said, “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.” This seemed potentially premature but was not too different from Joe Biden who said, “Keep the faith, guys. We’re gonna win this.” With both candidates confident in their own victory, it is apparent that this election will most likely come down to those mail in ballots.

There is a thought that the majority of mail-in ballots will be voting for Biden but there is no certainty in knowing if that is actually true. As for now though, the country’s eyes should be firmly on Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania to determine the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.