United States President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris speak in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 7, 2020, after being declared the winners of the presidential election. Both wear masks to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
Credit: © Andrew Harnik, AFP/Getty Images

In the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2021, the United States certified its electoral count, making official Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. In November 2020, Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, defeated the Republican incumbents (office holders), President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Certifying the electoral count is an activity associated with the Electoral College, a group of representatives that formally elects the president and vice president. On Election Day, in November, voters choose among presidential and vice-presidential tickets (pairings of candidates) from various political parties. But, the votes do not directly determine which candidate will become president. Instead, they determine which party’s electors will represent each state in the Electoral College. The electors, in turn, cast electoral votes on behalf of the states they represent. Electoral votes determine the outcome of the election.

In December, following the election, the electors in each state assemble and cast their ballots. Either by custom or by law, the electors vote for the candidates designated by their party. After the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to the vice president of the United States, acting in his role as president of the Senate. In January, at a joint session of Congress, the vice president opens and tallies the votes. One Democrat and one Republican from each chamber count the votes. The candidate who gets a majority of the electoral votes is declared the winner of the election.

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, members of Congress convened at the United States Capitol to carry out this largely ceremonial tradition. However, the count was disrupted by protests that turned violent. Supporters of President Trump, who had gathered to challenge the legitimacy of the election, stormed the Capitol, pushing through barriers and climbing walls. Lawmakers were quickly ushered to safety. Shouting and waving flags, the unruly mob entered the official chambers of Congress, as well as the personal offices of senators and representatives. Some damaged or stole property. Others took pictures of themselves occupying one of the nation’s most sacred buildings. Several people were injured, and one woman was shot and killed by the police. Several hours after the raid began, police and security officials cleared the Capitol. Lawmakers returned to the chambers to vote, intent on certifying the election results.

Outgoing Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a Republican, was one of the first senators to speak when talks resumed. Just hours earlier, Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, had defeated Loeffler in a runoff election. (In November 2020, neither Loeffler nor Warnock received more than half the vote, requiring the state to hold a runoff election.) The Loeffler-Warnock runoff was not the only one held in Georgia on January 5. In another runoff, the Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff defeated Senator David Perdue, a Republican. These victories gave the Democrats slim control of the Senate, reshaping the balance of power.

Credit: © Prostock-studio, Shutterstock

Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day in the United States, the day on which nationwide elections take place. Americans will vote to elect the next political leaders at the local, state, and national levels. More than 90 million people—a record number—have already voted early, either in person or by mail. The rights of citizens to select their leaders is a key feature of democracy, a type of government ruled by the people.

The primary presidential candidates include the Republican President Donald J. Trump and the Democratic nominee former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Trump became president of the United States in 2017. He had previously been known as a high-stakes real estate developer and reality television personality. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state. Trump’s running mate is Vice President Mike Pence. Prior to his election as vice president, Pence had been the governor of the Midwestern state of Indiana since 2013.

Biden served as vice president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. In 2008, Biden and Senator Barack Obama, who was elected president, defeated their Republican opponents, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. In 2012, Obama and Biden were reelected. They defeated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Before becoming vice president, Biden had represented Delaware in the United States Senate since 1973.

Biden’s vice-presidential running mate is Senator Kamala Harris. She became the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be placed on the presidential ticket of a major political party. Before becoming a member of the United States Senate in 2017, Harris served as attorney general of California. Attorney general is the state’s chief law officer.

Americans will vote not only for a president; many will also vote for lawmakers to represent their states. These lawmakers will fill seats in one of the country’s two lawmaking bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Races for House and Senate seats—as well as races for state and local offices—are known as downballot or downticket races. They are called that because they may be influenced by the turnout for the presidential election at the top of the ballot.

Many of our readers are not eligible to vote. (Voters must be age 18 or older.) But, we encourage you to learn about the candidates and to talk to the adults in your life about their voting plan.

February 18, 2019

Today, February 18, is Presidents’ Day in the United States. The annual holiday honors the nation’s presidents, especially George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It is celebrated on the third Monday in February. The birthdays of Washington and Lincoln fall near the holiday. Washington, the nation’s first president, was born on Feb. 22, 1732. Lincoln, who served as president during the American Civil War (1861-1865), was born on Feb. 12, 1809. Ironically, because the holiday is on the third Monday of the month, it can never fall precisely on February 12 or February 22.

George Washington was born on Feb. 22, 1732, and served as the first president of the United States. Credit: Oil painting on canvas (1796) by Gilbert Stuart; © World History Archive/Alamy Images

A federal holiday called Washington’s Birthday also occurs on the third Monday in February. It became a legal public holiday in 1971. Later, many states adopted Presidents’ Day instead, to honor not only Washington, but other presidents as well, especially Lincoln. Presidents’ Day is sometimes called Washington-Lincoln Day. Banks, government offices, libraries, and schools close on the holiday, but most private businesses remain open.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born on Feb. 12, 1809. Credit: Library of Congress

In the late 1870′s, Arkansas Senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey suggested adding Washington’s birth date to the four bank holidays previously approved in 1870. Signed into law on Jan. 31, 1879, by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the law was implemented in 1880 and applied only to District of Columbia federal workers. Washington’s Birthday was the first federal holiday to single out an individual’s birth date. (In 1986, the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., became a holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January.)

In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill which moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. With the implementation of the new federal law in 1971, Washington’s Birthday became a national holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February.

January 7, 2019

Yesterday, January 6, was the 100th anniversary of the death of former United States President Theodore Roosevelt in 1919. During his presidency from 1901 to 1909, Roosevelt fought for reforms that would benefit the American people. He became known as a “trust buster” because he tried to limit the power of great business corporations. During his administration, Congress passed laws to regulate the railroads, to protect the public from harmful foods and drugs, and to conserve the nation’s forests and other natural resources.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt died 100 years ago on Jan. 6, 1919. Credit: Library of Congress

Roosevelt was a man of great energy and practiced what he called the “strenuous life.” He enjoyed horseback riding, swimming, hunting, hiking, and boxing. He often expressed enthusiasm for something by describing it as “bully.” Cartoonists liked to draw Roosevelt with his rimless glasses, bushy mustache, prominent teeth, and jutting jaw. One cartoon showed him with a bear cub. Soon, toymakers were producing stuffed animals that are still known as “teddy bears.”

This portrait of Theodore Roosevelt hangs in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Credit: Theodore Roosevelt (1967, after 1908 original), oil on canvas by Adrian Lamb, after Philip Alexius de László; Smithsonian Institution

Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City on Oct. 27, 1858. After graduation from Harvard University in 1880, Roosevelt won election to the New York State Assembly. He later served as president of the Board of Police Commissioners in New York City and assistant secretary of the Navy. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Roosevelt helped form a cavalry regiment—the “Rough Riders”—that gained fame for its battle exploits in Cuba. After the war, Roosevelt won election as governor of New York. Two years later, he was elected vice president on the ticket with President William McKinley.

The face of Theodore Roosevelt (third from left) graces Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota. The other presidents depicted are (from left) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Credit: © Shutterstock

Roosevelt had been vice president for only six months when McKinley was assassinated in September 1901. Roosevelt then became the youngest president—aged just 42—in U.S. history. He won wide popularity, and millions of Americans affectionately called him “Teddy” or “T.R.” In 1904, the voters elected him to a full term as president.

In foreign relations, Roosevelt worked to make the United States a world leader. He felt that this leadership must be supported by strong armed forces. He expressed his foreign policy as: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt strengthened the U.S. Navy, began the construction of the Panama Canal, and kept European nations from interfering in Latin America. He helped end the Russo-Japanese War, and became the first American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Roosevelt ran for president again in 1912, as the “Bull Moose” party candidate, but lost the election to Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt was considering another run at the presidency in 1920, but he died unexpectedly at age 60 of a blood clot in the heart.