Americans head into the 4th day of waiting for the final vote count for the 2020 presidential election. Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have been campaigning in one of the most polarizing elections in American history. Supporters of both candidates have been tuning into news stations all across the country to see the electoral college numbers since Election Day on Tuesday. 

The winner of the 2020 presidential election depends on electoral votes, not the popular vote. Each state is allotted a certain amount of electoral seats based on the population of that state. 

The number of electors per state is based on the number of representatives added to the number of senators per state. Electors are nominated at national party conventions. When Americans vote for a certain candidate, they essentially vote for a certain group of electors to represent one party. 

Most states consider whichever candidate gets the most votes in the state overall to win the state, except for Maine and Nebraska. These two states give two votes to the candidate who wins overall and one vote to the winner of each district. To win the election, the candidate has to receive 270 electoral votes. 

Voting in the time of COVID-19 has looked different for Americans across the country. Many people opted to mail in their absentee ballots in the weeks prior to the election. 

These votes have been coming in for weeks now, though Trump has stated on multiple occasions that they are not reliable and that they make it much easier to get away with voting fraud. He has therefore urged his supporters to vote in person as opposed to using absentee ballots. 

 These claims have all proven to be false according to CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and several other fact-checking news outlets. 

When counting began on Tuesday, election workers across the country began with those ballots that had been marked in person. Because in-person voting tended to favor Trump in many states, Americans saw a major red wave across the country. 

When mail-in ballots started being counted, several states showed an overnight shift from red to blue. As more mail-in ballots continue to be counted, the percentages are evening out. 

Trump has now filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia arguing the voting process on the grounds of Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud in these swing states that have flipped against him. 

Trump has also called for a recount in Wisconsin, which was called in favor of Biden by a slim margin. Trump supporters around the country have gathered in protest outside of ballot-counting centers to argue that officials should “stop the vote.” According to Trump, any vote that came in past election day should be negated. 

The key battleground states that have been at the center of media coverage are Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Georgia, which has voted red since 1996, is currently the closest split between Biden and Trump. 

Since states were not allowed to begin counting ballots before Election Day despite the massive amount of mail-in and early votes this year, this election will drag out, as Americans are seeing now as they watch the constant shift in electoral votes in battleground states.

The swing states have been extremely close these past few days, with a shift from red to blue in Georgia and Pennsylvania the night of November 5th. 

If Pennsylvania stays blue and votes are officially counted by the end of today, November 6th, then Biden will have officially surpassed 270 votes. If it flips back to red, Trump will still not have enough votes to win the electoral college, meaning that Americans will have to wait and see how other swing states vote. 

Americans remain on the edge of their seats as this memorable election continues into the weekend.