Oceanside, Island Park residents react to 2020 presidential election

As of Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden has tallied over 75 million votes — more than any other presidential candidate in history — besting President Donald Trump’s 70 million-plus votes, the second most in history.

Only two states remained to be decided, Georgia and North Carolina, according to the Associated Press. The outcome of either, however, would not affect the overall outcome of the election.

Biden had 290 electoral votes secured, the AP was reporting. If he were to win Georgia — an increasingly likely outcome — he would end the election with 306 electoral votes. A candidate needs 270 to win the presidency.

The result has been met with mixed reviews from Oceanside and Island Park residents.

Responding to a Herald inquiry in an Oceanside community Facebook group, Leslie Seinfeld said she was pleased with Biden’s apparent victory.

“I am thrilled,” she wrote. “Now maybe we can heal as a country and start to make this country back into the United States.”

Diana Yanatos-Kinahan offered a different opinion, noting that she believed that the number of problems facing the country will not be solved by a new president.

“Do all the folks who voted for Biden really think this election is the answer to all this country’s problems? “ she wrote. “What happens when the far left realizes Biden is not the answer to their prayers?”

Alexandra Gomez Jaramillo, meanwhile, wrote that she was a Biden supporter.

“I am so happy a nice guy is in the office,” she wrote. “Someone who cares about the Americans, someone who respects women, someone who will keep Obamacare and someone who will allow us to travel again . . . someone who can bring us together.”

In an email to the Herald, an Island Park resident named Maria, who declined to give her last name, said she chose not to vote because neither candidate appealed to her. She added that she helps make a difference in other ways, such as helping sick people and the homeless.

“Voting to me is very important,” she wrote. “I believe that whether you vote in local elections all the way up to the presidential election, you have to vote for someone you believe in. I look up everyone who’s running from my local town and on. If I see that no one deserves my vote, I will not vote.”

In an email to the Herald, an Oceanside resident who preferred to be known as Patrick M. wrote that he was also a Biden supporter and glad to see a new president-elect.

“I can't describe the feeling of joy and relief I experienced on Wednesday evening watching the polls get closer and closer before they finally flipped,” he wrote. “ . . . It was a very tight race, but in the end, Biden won, integrity won, the truth won.”

In another email to the Herald, Rick Bonacorsi, an Oceanside resident, summed up his thoughts succinctly.

“Democracy is saved,” he wrote. “Decency is restored. The work begins.”