Though President Donald Trump has yet to concede, Joe Biden’s victory has matured for a little over a week now. Iowa State students, Ames residents, Iowa and the rest of America have had the time to gather themselves and reflect on the historic Nov. 3 day. 

It took four days to find out whether Trump or Democratic President-elect Joe Biden would be America’s next president. As many of us constantly refreshed their red and blue electoral maps and hovered around favorite news channels, the speculative days only resulted in anxiety. 

Rachel Herschman, junior in animal science, felt the agonizing wait for a presidential winner to come.  

“I think that was expected,” Herschman said, who expected the wait as she knew some states did not start tallying their votes until the voting polls closed. Herschman also said, “I wish more people would understand that. I find it really disturbing that the amount of people that do not have faith in the actual election results.”

Kristy Robertson, freshman in design, was uncertain on how long it would take for the winner to be announced. She even braced for a longer wait.

“Honestly, I was expecting it to take longer,” Robertson said. “I heard it was going to take until the ninth at least, but we found out on the seventh. I was nervous.”

Mack Shelley, chair of the political science department, said these delays are not uncommon or surprising as the presidential election in 2000 between George Bush and Al Gore took a considerable amount of time to call.

“A key difference this year, largely due to the pandemic, was the extraordinary number of early votes and mailed ballots that required more time to sort through,” Shelley said. “In addition, a mountain of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the Trump campaign to insist on recounts and to disqualify ballots — all of which adds to the delay in getting final closure on electoral votes for the presidential contest and produces additional time delays resolving some down ballot results as well.”

Even though it is certain Biden will be the next president of the United States, the next steps and future of America are still up in the air. The dust is still settling with many other issues.

Shelley said Trump is likely to battle the outcome of the election until the bitter end. His resistance will only invigorate his base and reassure his congressional supporters. 

“The hard core of Trump’s base seems to thrive off of the ensuing chaos, although polls (flawed though they may be) demonstrate overwhelming agreement that Biden has won the presidency,” Shelley said. “The election in Iowa is lopsidedly in favor of Republican dominance in the state, in large part due to strong turnout of Trump supporters, so I expect ISU students can look forward to at least a few more years of more of the same kind of state legislation and executive action by the governor that we have become accustomed to.”

Though the presidential election is over, at this point, people still need to prepare for uncertainty and speculation. In a recent press conference, Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, pointed out that the fight against the pandemic is still not over as the nation and state continues to battle an increase of cases.

“We’re seeing significant community spread across our entire state, both in our metro and rural communities,” Reynolds said. “COVID-19 does not discriminate based on geography. The virus is present in all of our communities, and all of us can help stop its spread.”

Who knows what next year looks like. Whether remote or in person, with masks or not, or with a vaccine or not, for students like Robertson, they can only opt for hope.

“I have no idea. All I know is that COVID is on the rise. Hopefully we do not get sent home. Even though we’re almost done this semester, hopefully we get to come back.”