Global News Insight’s documentary show Fault Lines was born out of the 2008 election between John McCain and Barack Obama. Since then, we have covered every major election in the United States, often focusing on voices that have been ignored in the political discourse. In 2020, we covered the democratic primaries in South Carolina and Michigan as well as the presidential contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In 2008, Obama received the most votes ever for a presidential candidate. This year, Biden and Trump both beat that mark.

It was a strange political season in the US – from a pandemic the likes we have not seen in 100 years, to the discovery of a missing laptop, to a right-wing militia plot to kidnap a sitting governor. Here are some of our photographs covering both the campaigns and the people who ultimately decided this election.