America will stay awake tonight, but the results sure won’t. We may sit glued to our screens, but we’ll only get frustration instead of results because the system is built to prolong our agony for the sake of 'accuracy' and 'integrity'—buzzwords that delay true decision-making.
With
ballots cast and watch parties underway, the 2024 presidential election has
arrived, and so has its drama. We can almost smell the popcorn at Mar-a-Lago,
where former President Trump gathers his loyalists, while Vice President Harris
holds down the watch party at Howard University. Both are dreaming of those
magical 270 electoral votes tonight, but let's be real—Americans may want to
tuck in with patience because that clear, decisive winner isn't likely to
emerge tonight.
In
a country built on swift gratification, waiting isn’t exactly what Americans do
best, but Election Night has always been a night that tests nerves and
tolerance. It’s a throwback to the chaos of 2020, where the term “election
night” became a bit of a misnomer as it dragged on into an "election
week." Once again, those same forces are at play in 2024, amplified by the
razor-thin margins we’ve seen in polling data leading up to today. In a way,
this is American democracy at its most suspenseful—almost as thrilling as a
Netflix binge, only real lives and futures are at stake.
Both
Harris and Trump, representing the most divergent visions of America, have made
their final pitches. Trump, in the sunny glitz of Palm Beach, and Harris, in
the heart of Washington D.C., now face the daunting reality: this isn’t just
about making pitches, it’s about counting ballots. But as is often said,
"The evening crowns the day," and this election evening may turn out
to be less of a crowning and more of a cliffhanger.
The
lessons of 2020 loom large. Mail-in voting, early voting, late-counting
ballots—the process stretches the patience of even the most loyal political
junkies. While Trump throws an ostentatious watch party among gold-plated
chandeliers at Mar-a-Lago, he’s also hoping the very votes he once disparaged
will deliver him back to power. Remember how he famously called mail-in ballots
“a scam” just a few years ago? Ironically, those ballots—those trickling,
late-counted votes—could very well shape his political fate tonight. Meanwhile,
Vice President Harris plays it safer, rallying at her alma mater and keeping
faith in a generation of voters who align themselves more with her vision of
inclusion, progressive ideals, and the continuation of the Biden-Harris legacy.
Let's
face it—American elections today are more marathon than sprint, thanks in part
to the reforms aimed at expanding voter participation. From the Voting Rights
Act to the more recent For the People Act, voting processes have been opened up
to include as many citizens as possible, and yet, the counting remains
cumbersome. Multiple states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia,
are likely to be the culprits of any delay, not because of incompetence but due
to regulations surrounding mail-in and absentee ballots. Pennsylvania, for
instance, only begins counting mail-in votes on Election Day—just like they did
in 2020. Georgia, meanwhile, is dealing with record voter turnout, which is a
double-edged sword: a triumph for democracy, but a bottleneck in counting
ballots.
To
the average American watching cable news with snacks in hand, this might feel
like a repeat of the 2020 nail-biter. Election denial, claims of voter fraud,
recounts—the ghosts of 2020 haven’t yet been laid to rest. Trump, more
experienced this time, has perhaps adopted a softer rhetoric, but don’t be
fooled—his legal team is on standby, ready to raise questions if the numbers
aren’t in his favor. And we know from history—whether it’s Bush v. Gore in 2000
or the chaos of 2020—that when elections are close, they end up in court as
much as in the court of public opinion. Proverbs tell us, "The axe
forgets, but the tree remembers." Trump’s campaign has not forgotten 2020,
and its strategy tonight shows it.
The
needle, as they say, will hover, and networks will be reluctant to call
anything prematurely. We might get an inkling, an educated guess—but America’s
networks, burned by past false projections (think back to Dewey Defeats
Truman), know better than to declare a victor when votes are still being
counted. As the Federal Election Commission repeatedly states, the process must
be thorough, transparent, and compliant with each state’s laws. This is
particularly true in battleground states where razor-thin margins could mean a
recount—possibly a trigger for another political and legal saga.
Harris
and Trump have approached this final day with contrasting tones. Trump, basking
in the echoes of his previous MAGA rallies, appeals to nostalgia—a yearning for
a version of America he claims has been lost. Harris, meanwhile, faces a
challenge: maintaining enthusiasm for a government she’s been part of, without
appearing as just an extension of President Biden. Biden’s approval ratings,
hovering around 42%, reflect a weary electorate—one uncertain if they are
satisfied or simply fatigued by the polarized nature of American politics. This
means that Harris must differentiate herself just enough to attract swing
voters while keeping the Democratic base energized, and that delicate balancing
act doesn’t end on Election Day; it continues until every ballot is tallied.
One
thing that has become clear is that despite the grand speeches and last-minute
pleas, this election will hinge not on charisma but on turnout. Voter
mobilization has proven to be a deciding factor in recent American elections.
In 2020, Biden's victory was credited to efforts that boosted turnout,
particularly in urban centers and minority communities, who responded to a
complex combination of social justice issues and pandemic-related crises. In
this election, the turnout strategy has been no less critical. Harris has
focused on galvanizing young voters, Black women, and urban centers, while
Trump has leaned heavily on rural counties and working-class white voters. It’s
as if both sides are digging trenches deeper, expanding bases but struggling to
persuade the opposition—classic trench warfare of modern U.S. elections.
The
narrative isn’t just about who casts the most votes tonight—it’s about how and
when those votes are counted. Swing states, with their patchwork of
regulations, hold the key to this drama. Florida is expected to count votes
faster because of early processing, but it may not be enough to call the race
definitively without knowing what happens in places like Arizona and Nevada,
where counting can drag on for days. The irony, of course, is that many of
these laws were designed to prevent voter fraud, to ensure “integrity,” but
have instead created procedural roadblocks that make Election Night a bit of a
guessing game. The wait, we are told, is the price of freedom—a rather poetic
line until it’s three days later and your sleep-deprived democracy is still waiting
for Nevada.
As
Americans, we’ve come to accept this unpredictability in elections, but we have
not grown comfortable with it. Perhaps it is because we see elections as the
pulse of our freedom, yet that pulse is increasingly delayed, tangled in
bureaucracy and procedural delays. The world watches, as it did in 2020, trying
to make sense of a system that is a mix of tradition and confusion—a system in
which, despite advances in technology, humans remain at its core, with all the
delays and errors they bring.
Trump
needs 270 electoral votes. Harris needs 270 electoral votes. And yet, neither
may know for certain tonight if they’ve gotten them. "Patience is bitter,
but its fruit is sweet," goes the old adage, and that patience will once
again be tested by slow counts in pivotal states. While pundits argue over
networks trying to be the first to call results, the rest of us are left to
wonder whether the American electoral system, this great, unwieldy beast, could
finally modernize for good. But who needs that when we’ve got watch parties,
legal battles, and a national dose of suspense that would make Hitchcock proud?
And
so, dear reader, brace yourself. You may need to brew an extra pot of coffee
tonight—or perhaps tomorrow night too—because once again, Election Day is no
longer just a day. It’s an era of prolonged suspense, and it looks like it’s
here to stay. In the grand American tradition of excess, even counting ballots
now takes longer than the parties that celebrate them.
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