Here's my favorite nugget of wisdom from a data geek this week.

Go give an election official a hug.

Best to wait until the pandemic is over, of course, unless you're living with one,

in which case give them a hug from the rest of us.

Michael McDonald from the University of Florida

says those officials have counted more ballots than ever before.

Around 160 million Americans exercise their right to vote.

President Trump is on course to get 68 million of those votes, 5 million more than he did last time, the second highest total ever.

The highest vote total in American history, will go to Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the counting continues three days later. This is checks and balance.

I'm John Curdo, the Economist's U.'s US editor, each week take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

Today, what just happened? Joe Biden is poised to win a rare victory against a sitting president.

A Biden White House would set a new tone for America. And yet the unexpected closeness

of the vote and the President's continued questioning of the result means Trump's

brand of populism may well live on in America.

In this episode, we'll decode the message the voters sent and what it means for America. The With me as ever to discuss all of this are Charlotte Howard, the economists New York Bureau Chief, and John

Fasman, the Washington correspondent. John, how have you been? Nothing much

happening this week. Quiet one for you. It's been a quiet week. I haven't done

much of anything. I've been in Philadelphia

this week. I'm very well. You know there are by my count just 1182 days left until the Iowa

caucuses, so I think we should talk about that today. Okay, excellent.

Charlotte, how about you?

...