Presidential Election 2020 Newsflash

It’s a race to the finish.

What is happening?

The result of an election unlike any other is still unclear. Although both parties had been looking to avoid repeating the mistakes of 2000’s contested outcome, a clear win today is improbable. Results will come in slowly due to vote counting complications caused by Covid-19, and we will know more in the coming days. Major news outlets will continue to make projections based on their own analyses, yet these do not reflect absolute and official results at this time. We’ll follow the situation closely between now and when the electoral college convenes on December 14th.

Yesterday, polls showed an increasing lead for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, yet today shows President Trump closing a predicted gap at an accelerated rate. Both domestic and international interest is at a record high, as is voter turnout. The margins matter for both parties. With no landslide in sight, here’s what we know now:

Key Points

• Trump has prematurely declared victory in a television statement this morning, while Biden has declared that the election isn’t over until every ballot is counted.
• Biden has taken the lead in Wisconsin as of the time of this send-out. Key battleground states Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania can turn the tide for this election. There are delays in Georgia.
• The overall composition of the Senate is unlikely to be determined until sometime in January, due to election rules in Georgia. The Senate will be key to what kind of stimulus package Congress votes through to fight the economic impact of Covid-19 in the United States.
• A short delay in the election results should not majorly impact the economy, while a drawn-out process can have more dire consequences.

What happens next?

States will continue to count mail-in ballots. Each state has different ways of processing and counting them. Some states started before Election Day, such as Florida and Arizona, while others waited, such as swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The Supreme Court may be forced to weigh in if the election result is contested by either candidate. This happened during the 2000 election between Bush and Gore. If it comes to that, we may not have a clear, official winner for weeks or months.

What happens if the election result is extremely close?

If the candidates tie with 269-269 electoral votes (270 needed to win), then the House of Representatives will choose the next president, and the Senate will choose the vice president. Current results project Democrats to retain control over the House, but Republicans have flipped six seats and double-digit votes are still to come in.

In the last forty years, there have only been two elections that we called after 9 AM Finnish time on November 4; Now there will be a third.

Amcham will be back with more updates for our member community.

Stay tuned.

U.S. Ambassador Greetings on Election Day

U.S. Ambassador to Finland Robert Pence offers his remarks on Election Day. Click the picture or this link to watch the video!

Today: Join our election results coverage online at 3 PM (EET)

Join us online today at 3:00 PM as we grab some drinks, debrief, and have a more informal, insider, and Chatham House rules look at what the results mean so far. We’ll leave the Q&A wide open for your questions. We’ve never hosted a debrief like this before, but then again, there hasn’t been an election year like this before.

Register here to join

• Dimitri Qvintus, Corporate Public Affairs Manager, Bayer; Former Special Advisor to PM of Finland
• Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak, PhD, Visiting Researcher at University of Helsinki
• Charly Salonius-Pasternak, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
• Alexandra Pasternak-Jackson, CEO, Amcham Finland
• Julia Mäklin, Policy Officer, Amcham Finland

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