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EDITOR'S NOTE: Through Thursday, The Times Leader presents Eastern Ohio's Top 10 news stories of 2020, as voted on by the editorial staff.
MARTINS FERRY -- On top of a year already stressful because of the COVID-19 pandemic, voters also endured a wild campaign season in 2020 that culminated in the election of a new president.
Though official tallies and the Electoral College vote show Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential race on Nov. 3, President Donald Trump has yet to officially concede the election. Instead he filed several lawsuits, claiming voter fraud, to try and overturn results in various states. Nearly all of those legal filings have been rejected by the courts.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to stoke his supporters' fires, leading to continuing protests and rallies across the country including in Washington, D.C.
Before, during and now after the election, President Trump continues to claim widespread voter fraud occurred with no evidence that has convinced a judge.
While voter turnout was historically high this presidential election year across the nation, plenty of local voters turned out as well.
Prior to decision day, election officials encouraged Eastern Ohio residents to vote early in person, to cast absentee ballots by mail or to drop off their ballots before Election Day to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. President Trump cast doubt on the United States Postal Service's ability to get absentee ballots processed in a timely manner and objected to rule changes surrounding mail-in voting.
In Belmont County, election officials said there were a record number of absentee ballots cast. Out of the 33,364 participating voters, 19,833 voted early.
While President Trump may have lost his seat, in Belmont County Republicans prevailed, taking all open seats in the local county contests.
According to official vote counts, in the commissioners' races, incumbent Republican Josh Meyer got 20,772 votes to Democrat challenger Michael Bianconi's 11,149, while incumbent J.P. Dutton received 18,053 votes over independent challenger Vince Gianangeli, who got 13,860.
In the Belmont County recorder's race, Republican Jason Garczyk received 20,167 votes and Democrat Cory DelGuzzo 11,723. They competed over the seat of outgoing Recorder Mary Catherine Nixon, who is retiring after decades in office.
For the Belmont County auditor's race, Republican challenger Cindi Henry unseated Democrat incumbent Anthony Rocchio with 17,906 votes to 13,964 votes.
In the presidential election, according to the Associated Press, Biden received 81,283,45 votes and Trump received 74,223,744 votes. Biden got 306 electoral votes, and Trump 232 electoral votes.
Staff Writer Robert DeFrank contributed to this report.