Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1280561
10 PalletCentral • July-August 2020 palletcentral.com POLICY PLAY AT W ho will be president of the United States next year, and how will it impact your business? Why should you care? The next president will be one of two men, assuming the positive health of both candidates taken into consideration. There will be much discussion of presidential candidate Joe Biden's pick for Vice President – Kamala D. Harris (D–CA), however it is a moot point. Plain and simple, it will be more of the same for small businesses if Donald Trump wins, and more of "Bill Clinton and Barack Obama" if Joe Biden wins. A presidential election is pretty straightforward, but it is draped in the pageantry and mudslinging of the 24/7 news cycle that needs content to fill space and make money through advertising. I have always said, "follow the money and votes in Washington, DC." When you watch the news, keep in mind that they are money-making machines. Recall billionaire Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, with a net worth of 60.1 billion dollars? The network's job is to keep you engaged and entertained to sell advertising space to companies, so take what you hear with a grain of salt. The election process is pretty straight- forward, established by our Founding Fathers at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. A portion of the population votes. The votes influence a body of electors known as the Electoral College, which forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of these United States. The presidential election is not a democratic popular vote. The candidate who gets 270 of the 538 total electoral votes wins, period. If you watch the news cycle, it can get confusing, annoying, and overwhelming. Not to oversimplify, but a presidential election boils down to a few realities. Reality Number 1: One of the two major-party candidates will win. Reality Number 2: The election is already over in 38 states and the District of Columbia. During the last five presidential elections, 72% of the 538 Electoral College votes were from states that voted the same way; 196 electoral votes from 15 states and the District of Columbia were consistently Democrat, and 191 of the votes came from 23 Republican-oriented states. The election comes down to 12 states with a combined total of 151 electoral votes. Seventy four of the 151 votes are needed for Joe Biden to be our next president, and 79 votes are required for Donald Trump to remain in office – remember the 270 votes to win the election. From the most to the least number of electoral votes, the 12 key states include Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, and New Hampshire. Trump won seven of these 12 states in 2016. Reality Number 3: This will be a contested election with states taking on voting by mail. On election night, expect to see court cases and a delayed announcement of a clear winner. Mr. President – January 20, 2021 Predicable Outcomes from an Unpredictable Election By Patrick Atagi iStockphoto.com/lucky-photographer