The 2020 General Election Comes to a Close

By Chim Unanwa
Co-Editor | The Pacific Times

The 2020 General Election has come to an end, and Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris are expected to win the presidency with an unprecedented amount of voter turnout.

California voters did not just vote on the presidency, but also for members of the House of Representatives, the State Assembly, and the State Senate, as well as 12 propositions.

Harris is currently one of California’s U.S. Senate members, so California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be tasked with choosing someone to fill her seat in the Senate.

Sacramento County verified its election results on Dec. 1 with 82.57% of its registered voters voting at the polls. People of Natomas elected three members to the Natomas Unified School District school board: Micah Grant and Susan Heredia, both incumbents, and newcomer Ericka Harden.

Grant said he plans to address the challenges with distance learning during the Coronavirus pandemic.

“One of my concerns is the learning loss that we’re experiencing right now, because of COVID-19, there’s been a move to distance learning,” Grant said. “I want to make sure that students are learning until they can safely get back to the classroom.”

Though the 2020 election saw impressive voter turnout, according to the United States Election Project, about 43% of the U.S. population did not vote this year. NP3 government teacher Jonathan Peacock suggested a few reasons why people may not have voted.

“I think there are a ton of reasons people don’t vote,” Peacock said. “Some of it is apathy, it takes some effort to go out to vote . . . or it could be that they don’t feel any connection to government, they don’t feel that it matters.”

Grant also offered a way to encourage more people to vote.

“If we spent more time teaching the community about what the government is responsible for, the more involvement you would get,”, added Grant.

The Democratic Party is projected to have a majority in the House of Representatives, and the majority in the Senate is a toss-up between Democrats and Republicans. A runoff election in Georgia is expected to determine the majority party in the Senate.

United States Elections Project