This past Saturday morning, after the most chaotic and controversial election week in American history, Democratic nominee Joe Biden was elected to be the 46th President of the United States. Biden defeated incumbent and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, after serving just one term in the White House.

“I feel pretty good about the candidate who won because I think he will be able to implement a good coronavirus plan to help us become safer and allow us to go back to school. I think he will be a president for all of America’s citizens and do what he believes is best for the majority of Americans,” sophomore Shalini Vlcan said.

In recent years, Americans have typically known the results of the presidential election on election night or the following morning. However, mail in ballots and different systems implemented in order to follow COVID-19 safety protocols slowed down the ballot counting process, leaving us without a clear winner until four days after the election took place.

President Trump took to twitter on Saturday morning declaring he had won the election by “a lot.” This came despite Trump being down significantly in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona. Trump has questioned the legitimacy of mail in ballots since they had gained popularity among voters throughout the pandemic.

“I believe mail in ballots are an effective and accurate way to cast my ballot. I am looking forward to this country coming together,” algebra teacher Susan Moore said.

Trump had repeatedly told his supporters to not vote by mail and instead vote in person. This played an important role in the timeline of the election. Trump took early leads in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan prior to the majority of mail in ballots being counted.

President-Elect Joe Biden did not discourage his voters from voting by mail, prompting most of the mail in ballots to be for Biden.

A voting number that did increase by a large amount was the amount of youth voters (18-29 years old) who cast ballots. In 2016, the amount of young eligible voters who actually voted was between 42%-44%. In 2020, that number spiked to 49%-51%.

“I believe that we’re best educated on politics while we are students,” sophomore Connor Lape said.

In swing states young voters supported Biden by almost a 2-1 margin on average over Trump. Joe Biden received over 126,000 more young votes than President Trump in Arizona, a crucial battleground state. Biden ended up winning the election by a slim 21,000 votes, giving him the 11 electoral points from the state.

This proves that young voters were the X-factor in Arizona, as well as all over the country, and that your vote matters.