With the conclusion of the United States Presidential election, Americans around the United States are beginning to plan for life with President Joe Biden. However, with the Trump campaign ramping up conspiracy theories regarding the true nature of how secure our elections are, an important question should be asked, how secure are American elections?

As the second-most populous democracy on Earth, the United States government has a large task when running federal presidential elections every four years. At the time of writing, Joe Biden has received a total of 77,848,770 votes or 50.8 percent of votes cast, while Trump has received 72,564,351 votes or 47.4 percent. (1) Although Georgia has ordered a recount, and other states haven’t completed their voting, Joe Biden has received a comfortable Electoral College win and sees himself elected as the President-Elect. As expected, President Trump is disappointed in these results and his frustration is manifesting itself in threats to legally contest the election results. With President Trump claiming fraud, we can see how valid such claims are. 

According to the Pew Research Center, “In all, 26.6 million mail-in votes were cast in the 49 presidential, state and combined primaries that the Center examined for 2020, out of nearly 53 million total votes.” (3) This huge number of mail-in votes caused some concerns regarding the security of this election. With Democrats ensuring voters that the results should be accepted and no fraud was committed, Republicans look to take this issue to court. 

Axios reporter Shawna Chen wrote regarding this issue in her article titled, “Department of Homeland Security calls election ‘the most secure in American history’”. In her article, she makes it clear that major law enforcement agencies are supporting the results of this election. She writes, “A top committee made up of officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its election partners refuted President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud and irregularities in a statement Thursday, calling the election “the most secure in American history.” (2) This analysis by the CISA is clear in its assertion that this election was highly secure regardless of the unfounded claims of President Trump. 

Although President Trump may claim fraud, a quick analysis of the information presented by the federal investigation seems to undermine the President’s claim that there was fraud during this election. The United States is one of the strongest nations in the world and our Presidential election has ramifications that span across both the western world and developing nations. With President-elect Joe Biden soon to take office, Americans should be happy to see no fraud was present in this election. American politics and elections should be a beacon of hope for those seeking to take part in a democratic election. Although the United States democracy isn’t perfect, we should aim to unite during the time of this pandemic, economic depression, and widespread unemployment.

American democracy presents itself as a hopeful destination for people escaping authoritarianism, persecution, and low economic opportunities. The United States is not just a democracy, it is the democracy that people look to for inspiration, hope, and a sense of optimism. Even since its conception, the United States’ Declaration of Independence was adopted and similar versions were used by nations to declare independence. As we look to a future under President Joe Biden, we must continue to be united as a nation as we ensure Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness for all American citizens. 

1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-president.html

2. https://www.axios.com/cisa-election-security-trump-a385868b-512a-4449-addd-4591829a4aef.html

3. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/mail-in-voting-became-much-more-common-in-2020-primaries-as-covid-19-spread/