America has voted

The students of UNCG, in Greensboro, North Carolina, marched for miles in procession to go and vote. Polling places had been closed in majority-Black neighbourhoods, and hours-long queues formed where few people vote for Donald Trump: making the vote slow and hard for those who are not on your side, as in Brazil ten days ago, where voters were left at the bus stop for lack of buses and voting had to be extended by two hours. They voted all the same.

What the ballot boxes say

By morning, Paris time, the AP count left no doubt: 228 seats for the Democrats in the House, 139 for the Republicans, 218 made a majority; 54 to 44 in the Senate, independents included; 27 governors to 20. And America moves forward: in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms is the first Black woman elected governor of a state; in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed the first Muslim senator; in New Mexico, Deb Haaland the first Native American woman governor; a first openly gay senator; and in Texas, a Republican stronghold, the Democrat James Talarico elected senator.

“Willing to accept”

Donald Trump said he was “willing to accept” the results and praised the Democrats’ “good job”, he who promised a million dollars against fraud. He is now a “lame duck”, writes Le Monde: the veto as his only weapon for two years, inquiry committees facing him. At the pump, in Houston as in Lyon, the vote changes nothing this morning. So what is an election night for, if not to say who we are?