The 2020 presidential election had always been a stressful topic, and the frustration increased once Nov. 3 finally arrived.

But Election Day was only the beginning of a week of delays, rumors, and mental exhaustion.

As soon as the morning started, the election was on every American’s mind; the country would start to get results until that evening, so the anticipation just kept building up. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many people switched to mail-in ballots to avoid contact with people; thus making the counting process longer.

I was hoping by some miracle, we would get a general idea of the winner by the next day, but that didn’t happen. Nov. 4-6 felt like a deadlock. Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina were taking forever to count votes, and the anticipation grew even more when Joe Biden’s electoral votes went to 264 according to Fox News.

Joe Biden needed six more votes to win, and Nevada had precisely six electoral votes, but they were a long way from declaring who would get them.

The Legislature passed a bill in August to send all active voters mail-in ballots in hopes of curbing, or at least not fueling, the spread of the coronavirus, according to The Guardian. Ballots that arrived by mail are first processed through a machine that verifies signatures. Then, the Election staff examines signatures not verified by the machine. Finally, a review is done to make sure the total number of ballots processed matches the number of ballots received. Once verified, those ballots are counted.

Nevada didn’t finish counting the votes until Nov. 6 because they still needed to count around 50,000 more votes. But President Trump started to spat out baseless theories about voter fraud, claiming that many of the votes were in the names of deceased residents, according to Daily Mail.

It was at a point where the election was all someone could think and talk about. No one wanted it to take up the majority of their mental capacity, but it couldn’t be helped. Every time you turned on your phone, whenever you walked into Gwinn, and when your professor asked how you were feeling about the election at the beginning of your Zoom class; it was always there.

The election was like an itch no one could scratch.

The baseless claims of voter fraud did not help at all, it just added more stress for everyone.

Seeing the electoral votes, it was just a matter of time when the results would be final. When Biden’s votes reached 264, it seemed pretty evident to me that Joe Biden would take the win, but it had to be made official.

President Trump didn’t want to admit that he was losing a fair election so he continued to make baseless claims that the election was rigged.

According to the New York Times, President Trump made a baseless claim that a voting machine deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide. But he was contradicted by a group of federal, state, and local officials; they claimed there was no evidence whatsoever of voter fraud.

And then, after days of waiting and staring at electoral maps, it was announced that Joe Biden would be the projected President-elect. It was a day of celebration and relaxation. Many were so relieved to have a weight lifted off of our shoulders.

While some people are willing to accept that Trump wouldn’t come out the victor, that hasn’t stopped Trump supporters from taking to the streets, waving Trump flags, and believing every word Trump says about voter fraud.

We can wish that this is the end of the voting and counting process, but as long as President Trump lives in denial and demands recounts from many states, it is going to a very long epilogue to what was supposed to be a straightforward story.

The election process is not usually like this; it doesn’t usually involve blatant whining and screaming. The races before were so clearly won, that this process was easily projected with little objection.

As Trump’s theatrics continue, all anyone can do is watch a power-hungry toddler throw a tantrum for all the world to see. The votes have been checked, they’ve been counted, and in December, they will be confirmed with the official casting of the electoral votes.