By Chadwick Dolgos
-COVID-19-
If you were planning on making the drive to Washington, D.C. for the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, you may want to pump the brakes and reconsider those plans.
In response to social distancing concerns related to the pandemic, ticketing plans have been modified for the inaugural ceremonies to significantly limit attendance.
Under normal circumstances, constituents interested in attending the inauguration would contact their respective senators or representatives, who would then decide how to distribute out the number of tickets they are allotted. This year, the offices of Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Conor Lamb will not have tickets for the official ceremony to distribute.
In-person tickets permitting access to capital grounds during the ceremony will be extended Congress and one guest, said Jae’Von McClain, staff assistant at Casey’s capitol office.
A total of 1,070 tickets will be made available as there are 535 total members in Congress: 100 in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives.
Alternately, nearly 250,000 tickets were printed for President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
While non-ticket holders have been welcomed to enjoy the ceremonies from the National Mall in the past, Biden’s inauguration ceremony will be held mostly virtual.
While the news may be disappointing to those who had hoped to see Biden be sworn in as the 46th President in person, McClain shared that “enhanced” opportunities to enjoy the ceremonies online, along with the traditional televised national broadcast are being worked on.
Photo courtesy Massimo Giachetti
Cities across the country have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden for winning the 2020 election. The Electorial College confirmed the results on Dec. 14.
Electoral College names Biden President-elect
By Jamie Wiggan
Following weeks of contests over Joe Biden’s election win in several key states, the Electoral College confirmed Biden as President-elect when it convened Dec 14.
President Trump has repeatedly contested this year’s election results, which relied on an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak. However, most of the lawsuits filed by his campaign were dismissed by the courts as lacking sufficient evidence, and Biden maintained his win in all five contested swing states.
One high profile challenge filed in Pennsylvania, with GOP candidate for Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District, Sean Parnell, among the plaintiffs, was dismissed by the United States Supreme Court just days before the Electoral College delegates pledged their votes.