“Trump or Biden?” Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have definitely heard or read these words somewhere.

The race for the US presidency has finally ended. After over a year of many candidates campaigning for the presidency, the American people have decided to elect Joe Biden. The 2020 election was the most popular in terms of votes cast. According to the Associated Press, over 150 million Americans, (which is around 66% of all registered voters), cast their votes. 

Some students felt the increased turnout was the result of the tumultuous year it has been across the United States. 

“With all of the recent current events, such as the Black Lives Matter protests, the coronavirus, and such, I think that the American people have realized how voting can affect the lives of many,” said eighth grader Chester Coles. “It created a sense of empathy, and it allowed for an increase in voters.” 

During his road to the presidency, President-elect Biden won the Democratic primaries that spanned from February to August 2020. He became the Democratic nominee for president, and, according to multiple sources such as The Associated Press, he defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in the presidential election after securing 306 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 232. Biden chose Kamala Harris, a senator from California, as his running mate. She will become the first vice-president who is a woman and a person of color. If everything goes as planned,

Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021, becoming the 46th official president of the United States.

The presidential election, however, is steeped in controversy, at least from the perspective of the Republicans. Many members of the Grand Old Party (GOP), are not too satisfied with the results. Republicans around the country have been throwing accusations at the Democratic party for rigging the election. Their allegations include wide-spread voter fraud, inaccurate machines, liberal volunteers creating fake ballots, and poll workers hiding and/or destroying ballots cast for trump

President Trump strongly agrees with his supporters’ accusations, attempting to take the results of the election to the Supreme Court. The states he and his team of lawyers have accused of voter fraud are Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. If Trump is going to be successful in overturning the election, though, he has to make sure it will be before December 14. That’s the date that the electors, the individual people who make up the electoral college, cast their votes. His attempts, however, have a very low probability of working out according to The Washington Post, which stated that Pennsylvania already denied the President’s case, and that the same outcome will most likely happen in the other states.

On Twitter, the president has been sending out an abundance of tweets accusing the Democrats of voter fraud. One of his tweets said, “I won this election, by a LOT.” Twitter, however, disputed all of his claims that he tweeted about voter fraud. Twitter isn’t the only source that is shooting down Trump’s claims. The New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many more publications and news entities all think that Trump’s efforts mean little and will not change anything. 

Some students feel the same way.

“I don’t think that there was actually voter fraud because there is no actual evidence,” said eighth grader Leah Klein. “I think that Trump is having a hard time losing, although Biden was made [the] winner.”

Others thinks differently. “Yes, I do believe that there was voter fraud,” said eighth-grader Andrew Shim. “I find it hard to believe that two-hundred thousand votes could be found at 3:00 a.m., all with Biden’s name on them.”

The student body, like much of America, seems to be split, and it’s not just over the presidency. Americans also voted in members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. In these two houses, the Republicans thrived. In the House of Representatives (Congress), the Democrats lost eight seats while the Republicans gained nine. However, the Democrats still control Congress by a small margin of seats, 222 – 206. In the Senate, the Democrats gained one seat while the Republicans lost one. Republicans, though, are still expected to keep control of the Senate, making the final results 50 – 46 in favor of the Republicans. This is significant because a Republican-controlled Senate may make it tougher for Biden and his administration to push his policies through. 

On Biden’s official website, www.joebiden.com, he states his plans for the presidency include the following: finding a vaccine for COVID-19, making healthcare affordable for every American, prioritizing the environment, and his biggest plan: “Build Back Better.” The “Build Back Better” plan was created by the Biden administration to create an economic recovery for working American families due to unemployment from the pandemic. Only time will tell how successful Biden will be in accomplishing these goals. Some students, though, think Biden will do a better job than his predecessor. 

I think [Biden and his administration] will do a better job,” said Klein, “[by] making masks mandatory and putting the U.S. back under lockdown.”

Others disagree.

“I don’t think that Biden will do as much for our country as President Trump did because of the ‘mandatory’ mask mandates, and a nationwide shutdown,” said Shim. “I think President Trump has done a great job improving the economy, lowering unemployment rates, lowering taxes, and funding African-American colleges.”

America seems to be in a vulnerable spot right now, reeling from the rising infection of coronavirus cases and dealing with the fallout of an intense election season and a year of social unrest. At the end of the day though, “Trump or Biden” is not what keeps our nation united. Every citizen of the U.S. is an American, and all Americans should work together for what is best for our nation.