We at The Jewish Link have tried to be as even-handed as possible throughout this very long and stressful pandemic-era election. Temperatures have run high, and we don’t just refer to COVID-19. When we printed cover analyses of Israel-based olah Caroline Glick the week before last—because our bipartisan editorial team agreed she presented interesting thoughts on polling error and bias—we took heat for it. Those citing and claiming our perceived right-wing bias in printing her article didn’t even read the article before condemning us and our “slant.”
Then, last week, we printed multiple op-eds, from multiple perspectives, focusing three out of four on Democratic candidates, because New Jersey is a Democratic state and those races were the relevant ones for New Jersey. But, as you will see in our letters section, we took some heat for that too from our friends on the right.
For some members of our community, The Jewish Link just can’t win and will never get it right. But despite the criticism, we still feel that everyone has a right to their opinion, and we are ready to declare a winner of this election.
The winner is the American voter, who turned out in the highest numbers since 1900, and even gave a run for 1876’s turnout.
According to the U.S. Elections Project, 160 million people have voted, making 2020 turnout a predicted 66.9%. “That is not a typo,” tweeted Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida and director of the Election Project. “The 2020 presidential election had the highest turnout rate in 120 years.”
In the years since 1900, turnout has hovered anywhere from 48 to 60% of eligible voters.
We take comfort, as always, from the wise words of our sometimes-columnist Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, who wrote Tuesday night on Twitter: “Can we just pause to note that whatever challenges exist, 150 million people voting in an organized and trustworthy way, in the middle of a pandemic, is something extraordinary and worth being very proud of!”
May all of our future elections elicit such extraordinary turnouts from a caring, conscious electorate.
