by James Rickards
Daily Reckoning
We’re in the wake of one of the closest elections in U.S. history, at least in the Electoral College count. Joe Biden will win the popular vote count by 3 to 4 million votes.
That was totally expected and is irrelevant. Presidents are elected by the Electoral College, not by the popular vote. So, let’s turn our attention to that and see where things stand.
Despite the drama and anticipation, the 2020 electoral vote was playing out very much as the 2016 electoral vote played out through the late hours of Election Day and into the early morning on November 4.
Then a key state flipped. Arizona, which Trump won in 2016, was declared for Joe Biden. That put 11 electoral votes in Biden’s column and subtracted 11 from Trump’s 2016 total. That’s not fatal for Trump in itself, but it makes his path to victory far more difficult.