Election 2020 in Photos: Protests, Long Lines, and COVID-19

It’s been an election week like no other. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, a record number of Americans cast ballots, sending them via mail, standing in long lines to vote early, and turning out on Election Day to make their voices heard. As of Friday, Joe Biden appears to be on the brink of winning a nail-biter of a presidential election that has come down to the counting of mail ballots in a few all-important battleground states.

This week saw raucous mass demonstrations in cities across the country, with protesters calling for every last vote to be counted. They were met with smaller counter-protests by Trump supporters, who showed up at polling sites and city squares trumpeting the president’s baseless claim that the election was being stolen from him.

Teen Vogue sent photographers to three major cities to document the November 2020 election in all its chaos, joy, and resistance: In Washington, D.C., Carolina Correa-Caro swung by the White House, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial; Phylicia J.L. Munn captured boarded-up luxury stores on Los Angeles's Rodeo Drive; and in New York City, Andy Jackson documented people in Times Square watching the returns come in and volunteers handing out warm meals to voters at the Brooklyn Museum.

Fuel the People cofounder Gaïana Joseph told Jackson that they were “bringing love and compassion” to voters through food: “As voters faced unprecedented circumstances this election, we could not ignore the ways in which hunger can be a form of voter suppression, especially in historically marginalized neighborhoods where lines have been and will be disproportionately long.”

Annie Fan, 25, ran into Jackson after voting near New York's Union Square. She was hoping this election would turn the tide for the United States. “For the last four years, I have been feeling un-proud to be an American citizen…." she said. "[Trump] has grossly mismanaged the pandemic, while also furthering the divisions across this country in a time where we need to come together.”

This is what democracy looks like.