When the dust finally settled on the 2020 election, the numbers were just... staggering. We aren't just talking about a busy Tuesday in November. It was a massive, record-breaking tidal wave of civic participation that caught even the most seasoned pollsters off guard. Honestly, if you look back at the 2020 total votes for president, you’re looking at a historical anomaly that reshaped how we think about American turnout.
Joe Biden didn't just win; he cleared the 80 million mark, a feat no candidate had ever achieved before. Donald Trump also shattered the previous record for a sitting president, pulling in over 74 million votes. People weren't just voting; they were voting with a sense of urgency that we haven't seen in over a century.
The Massive Scale of the 2020 Total Votes for President
So, what was the actual final tally? According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and certified state results, the 2020 total votes for president reached a grand total of approximately 158.4 million.
To put that in perspective, that’s about 66.8% of the citizen voting-age population. You have to go all the way back to the 1900 election—back when William McKinley was running—to find a higher percentage of the country showing up at the polls. It was a 15.9% increase in raw votes compared to 2016. That kind of jump is basically unheard of in modern politics.
The breakdown looked like this:
- Joe Biden: 81,282,916 votes (51.3%)
- Donald Trump: 74,223,369 votes (46.9%)
- Jo Jorgensen: 1,865,535 votes (1.2%)
- Howie Hawkins: 405,035 votes (0.3%)
There were also a handful of other candidates and write-ins that made up the remaining 0.3%. It’s kinda wild to think that Biden won by 7 million votes, yet the race came down to just a few tens of thousands of people in states like Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
Why the Turnout Exploded
You've probably heard the theories. Some say it was the pandemic. Others say it was the sheer polarization of the country. Truth is, it was a mix of everything.
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The expansion of mail-in voting was a huge factor. Because of COVID-19, states scrambled to make voting easier and safer. Suddenly, people who might have skipped because of work or long lines had a ballot sitting on their kitchen table. In fact, for the first time ever, a majority of voters—about 69%—used "nontraditional" methods like mail-in ballots or early in-person voting.
It wasn't just convenience, though. The motivation was through the roof.
Where the Votes Came From: A State-by-State Look
If you want to understand the 2020 total votes for president, you have to look at the "big" states and the "swing" states separately. California alone delivered over 11 million votes for Biden, which is more than the total population of many European countries.
But the real drama happened in the margins.
Take Georgia. It hadn't gone blue since 1992. Biden won it by a razor-thin 11,779 votes. That is a rounding error in a state where nearly 5 million people voted. The Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, had to oversee multiple recounts and audits just to satisfy the intense scrutiny.
In Arizona, the margin was similarly tight—roughly 10,457 votes.
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Then you have the "Blue Wall" states:
- Pennsylvania: Biden won by about 80,000 votes.
- Michigan: A more comfortable 154,000-vote margin for the Democrats.
- Wisconsin: Back in the blue column by just over 20,000 votes.
Trump, meanwhile, saw huge surges in places like Florida and Texas. He won Florida by over 370,000 votes, a significantly larger margin than his 2016 victory there. It goes to show that the high turnout didn't just benefit one side; it was a "rising tide lifts all boats" situation for both major parties.
The Demographic Shifts
Who were these 158 million people?
The Census Bureau did some deep digging and found that turnout spiked across almost every demographic. Asian American turnout hit an all-time high of nearly 60%. Hispanic and Latino voters also showed up in record numbers, making up 10% of the total electorate for the first time.
There was also a weirdly specific spike among white non-college-educated voters. This group, which has traditionally leaned Republican, saw their turnout jump by about 6 percentage points. Usually, you don't see those kinds of shifts in a single four-year cycle. It suggests that both campaigns were incredibly effective at finding and "activating" people who usually stay home.
Misconceptions About the 2020 Tally
One thing that gets lost in the noise is the difference between "votes cast" and "votes for president."
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Every year, there are thousands of "under-votes." These are people who show up, vote for their local Sheriff or a ballot measure, but leave the top of the ticket blank because they don't like any of the choices. In 2020, this was less common than in 2016, but it still happens.
There's also the "over-vote" where someone accidentally bubbles in two names and the machine spoils the ballot.
And then there's the timeline.
Because of the massive amount of mail-in paper, the 2020 total votes for president weren't fully known on election night. This led to the "red mirage" and "blue shift" phenomena. Trump tended to lead early because in-person votes (which leaned Republican) were counted first. Biden's numbers climbed later as the mail-in ballots (which leaned Democratic) were processed. It wasn't a conspiracy; it was just the order of the pile.
Actionable Insights: How to Use This Data
Understanding the 2020 numbers isn't just a history lesson. It’s a roadmap for future elections. If you're following politics or just curious about how your vote fits into the big picture, keep these points in mind:
- Check the certification dates: Popular vote totals shift for weeks after an election as overseas and military ballots arrive. Never trust "final" numbers on election night.
- Look at the VEP, not just the VAP: The "Voting Eligible Population" (VEP) is a more accurate measure of turnout than the "Voting Age Population" (VAP) because it excludes non-citizens and others who can't legally vote.
- Watch the "Third Party" drop-off: In 2016, third-party candidates took about 6% of the vote. In 2020, that dropped to under 2%. When the stakes feel high, voters tend to consolidate around the two main parties.
- Monitor mail-in laws: Since 2020, many states have changed their rules about drop boxes and mail-in deadlines. These administrative tweaks can have a massive impact on the final total.
The 2020 election proved that the American electorate is far from apathetic. When people feel like the stakes are personal, they show up. Whether that 158-million-vote record will ever be broken remains to be seen, but it set a new bar for what's possible in a modern democracy.
If you want to verify these stats for yourself, the best place to go is the FEC’s official "Official General Election Results" PDF, which they publish after every cycle. It’s a dry read, but it’s the only place where every single vote is accounted for in black and white. For demographic breakdowns, the U.S. Census Bureau’s "Current Population Survey" is the gold standard for seeing who actually went to the polls.
Next Steps:
Go to the FEC.gov website and look up your specific county’s 2020 results. You might be surprised to see how close the margin was in your own backyard compared to the national average. Once you have that local context, compare it to the 2016 data to see if your neighborhood participated in the massive 15% turnout jump that defined the year.