The U.S.

presidential elections held last presidential term are considered one of the most
important elections worldwide, because, being a superpower, changes in the administration can
have an impact on relations between countries, and even on the economy of this and other
countries. With the victory of Democrat Joe Biden, it is likely that multiple changes will take place
internally and externally in the United States, but while it is officially positioned and the
administration of Donald Trump is finished, it is pertinent to make an analysis of the elections,
their importance and their consequences. So, below, we will see 4 important points, first, an
analysis of the electoral process; second, a view towards the campaigns of Trump and Biden, their
differences and the impact that Covid had regarding these; third, an analysis of the results taking
into account the most important States, the impact of Biden's victory internally and externally;
and, fourth, by way of conclusion a vision of the current situation.

The U.S. electoral system is an indirect voting system, i.e., the candidate is not voted for directly,
but the electoral college is voted for. Each State is given a number of electoral votes that is
decided by its demographic distribution, for this reason, the most populated States have the most
electoral votes and the most weight, for example, California has the highest number of electoral
votes (55), followed by Texas (38) and if we contrast with the number of inhabitants we realize
that California has the highest, followed by Texas and so on. In total there would be 538 electoral
votes and the winner will be the one with at least 270 of those votes. We can classify it as a
winner-take-all majority system and due to the nature of this system it should be noted that it will
always tend to bipartisanship, where two parties, the strongest of which in this case are the
Democrats and the Republicans, will always dispute the administration. This does not mean that
there are no other parties, there are and constitutionally they can exist, but due to the type of
system they manage, it is very difficult for a third party to gain as much strength as the traditional
ones. Now, I think it is important to mention what happened in the 2016 presidential election in
which the winner was Donald Trump because he had the most electoral votes, but Hilary Clinton
had the most popular votes. This is something that can happen and to which the indirect voting
system is exposed and for which many people have questioned this is a statement that I consider
erroneous and unfounded, because regardless of the fact that the vote is indirect, the conditions
for a country to be considered a democracy are still in place, there is universal suffrage, partisan
competition and civil liberties.

But, in addition, the situation described above has not happened a significant number of times to
consider it a failed system. For these reasons I consider that it is a system in accordance with the
needs of the country and its federal composition. On the other hand, and although this system
works, no model is perfect and we soon encounter a problem, the strong bipartisanship that
results from a winner-take-all indirect voting electoral system can cause a crisis of governance and
the United States is no exception. Presidential elections have been characterized by low turnout
rates, where the average varies between 50 and 60%, a situation that had been a constant until
this year, when a 66.4% turnout rate was recorded the highest in the last 50 years. This situation is
partly due to the nature of the system, where people abstain from voting because they consider
that their vote is not significant, a situation that can be illustrated with what happened in 2016 in
which Clinton had the majority of popular vote, however, she did not turn out to be the winner. In
addition, the distribution of electoral college votes can largely influence this, because the parties
would consider focusing only on the States that could have more weight than others, they will
make more presence and campaigns in the places that could give them the victory and it is that
under the logic that low electoral participation rates even turn out to be useful for governance, by
generating less stress to the political system and ultimately indicates that there is a tacit approval
of the party system and the democratic regime it is possible to explain the effort of the leaders to
focus on specific areas of the country. However, in the long run what it generates is a crisis of
governability, since being in charge of a country where its inhabitants who do not feel

represented by their president, it becomes more difficult to govern. To illustrate the above we can
refer to the Trump administration, where protests were continuously presented by his racist and
xenophobic policies that were implemented in a country where there is a large percentage of
migrants and African Americans.

(31 de octubre de 2020). Trump cv. Biden: las promesas de los candidatos encinco temas
cruciales. France 24. Disponible en: https://www.france24.com/es/ee-uu-y-canad
%C3%A1/20201030-eeuu-propuestas-campa%C3%B1a-trump-biden-pandemia-salud-economia

FirVote (sf). Tasa de

participación electoral,
1789-2018. Disponible en:
https://www.fairvote.org/
voter_turnout#voter_turnout_101
Arciniegas, Y. (31 de octubre
de 2020). Trump cv. Biden:
las promesas de los candidatos
en
cinco temas cruciales. France
24. Disponible en:
https://www.france24.com/es/ee-
uu-y-canad
%C3%A1/20201030-eeuu-
propuestas-campa%C3%B1a-
trump-biden-pandemia-salud-
economia