> If people agree it was tumultuous why was the race still so close?
It wasn't all that close. Of six elections (including this one) since 2000, at least 3 and possibly 4 (votes are still being counted) were closer in popular vote, and 3 were closer in electoral vote (based on what has been called so far, regardless of how the uncalled states go.
But it was particularly actively contested, with both high turnout and high passions on both sides, which is exactly what “tumultuous” means.
It was incredibly close, so close that we waited for days to figure out who's going to win.
Biden has ~50.6%, if that's not close I don't know what is.
The fact some previous was closer, doesn't mean this one wasn't close, not sure how we even need to point this out on a site like hackernews.
> It was incredibly close, so close that we waited for days to figure out who's going to win
We didn't wait for days because it was close; races which were much closer were called much sooner.
We waited because calls are made by projections, which are based on statistical extrapolation, which are sensitive to patterns of comparable comparable ballots, and the high mail in count and partisan divide in mail-in ballot usage made projection much more difficult than it normally is.
> Biden has ~50.6%, if that's not close I don't know what is.
A >3 percentage point margin isn't close by standards that make any sense applied to US Presidential elections.
That said, even if it was particularly close, the bigger point is that that wouldn't be evidence that it wasn't tumultuous, since “tumultuous” isn't in any way opposed to “close”. That it also wasn't particularly close is a secondary issue.
We waited because of mail in voting. Biden got 50.5% but Trump got 47.7% of the popular vote. That's a pretty big spread. 74.5 million to 70.4 million. So by popular vote it was pretty significant. By electoral votes it's a much wider percentage.
Because the only thing between him and chaos was Democratic House of Representatives. That's pretty tumultuous. Also the world hates us a lot more than when he started.
Was it close? Seems like it just took a long time to process mail in ballots because the administration tried its best to invalidate them and decrease their legitimacy.
Furthermore tumultuous does not equate to unpopular. Perhaps his supporters enjoy the chaos.
This is unfortunately true, but important to point out that it is only a recent truth. Historically news agencies were neutral, striving to report unbiased news. Politicizing current events is relatively new and I do not think has been a positive innovation anywhere in the world.
Any choice in publishing one news is simultaneously an active a choice in not publishing another. Furthermore, there is not one singular truth to report in the vast majority of news, in particular of political nature.
The solution is not to find another news outlet that feels more like truth. Instead, find a few different news outlets and understand their biases.
It was "close" because the counting was so slow. If Pennsylvania was allowed to count early votes beforehand, it would've been obvious that Trump was not going to have a chance there.
Biden is going to win the popular vote by around 4-5% (~7 million votes) but the tipping point state (probably WI) by only 0.6%. If he had done 0.7% worse across the board he would have won the popular vote by 6 million votes and still lost the election. The electoral college is a monstrous indignity.
It’s why voters are making the very rare move to unseat a modern president. Joe Biden is not an exciting president, so why are people so energized during a pandemic?
It's not close at all! When California and NY and Illinois finally finish counting votes Biden is going to be up around 7 million or so votes. It's going to be the 2nd least close election since 1996 (behind the Obama 08 landslide).
It wasn't all that close. Of six elections (including this one) since 2000, at least 3 and possibly 4 (votes are still being counted) were closer in popular vote, and 3 were closer in electoral vote (based on what has been called so far, regardless of how the uncalled states go.
But it was particularly actively contested, with both high turnout and high passions on both sides, which is exactly what “tumultuous” means.