If you're still trying to wrap your head around the numbers from the last time we did this, you're not alone. Honestly, it was a lot to take in. Between the pandemic-era mail-in ballots and the record-smashing turnout, the final count felt like it took forever to solidify.
So, let's just cut to the chase: how many votes did Biden get in the 2020 election?
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The final, certified number was 81,283,501.
That is a massive figure. In fact, it's the most votes any presidential candidate has ever received in the history of the United States. To put that in perspective, he didn't just win; he broke the previous record held by Barack Obama in 2008 by more than 11 million votes.
Breaking Down the Popular Vote
When we talk about the popular vote, we’re looking at the raw total of every single person who filled out a ballot for Joe Biden across all 50 states and D.C. He ended up with 51.3% of the total vote share.
Donald Trump didn't exactly have a small showing either. He brought in 74,223,975 votes, which was also a record for a sitting president. But the gap between them—that 7 million vote margin—is what really defines the scale of the 2020 race.
People sometimes forget that in the U.S., the popular vote is sort of like a scoreboard that doesn't actually decide the winner of the game. It shows the mood of the country, sure, but the "points" that matter are the electoral ones.
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The Numbers That Actually Put Him in the White House
While the 81 million figure gets the headlines, the Electoral College is where the deal was sealed. This is where it gets a bit more technical but basically, Biden won 306 electoral votes.
You only need 270 to win.
Ironically, 306 was the exact same number Donald Trump won with back in 2016 (though Trump's final certified count was slightly lower due to a few "faithless electors"). Biden flipped several key states that had gone Republican four years prior, which was the real engine behind his victory.
The States That Flipped the Script
If you're wondering where those 81 million votes actually came from, you have to look at the "Blue Wall." Biden managed to win back Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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- Michigan: Won by about 154,000 votes.
- Pennsylvania: Won by roughly 81,000 votes.
- Wisconsin: A much tighter margin of about 20,000 votes.
But the real surprises? Georgia and Arizona. Biden became the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and the first to take Arizona since 1996. In Georgia, the margin was razor-thin—just 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. That's about the size of a small college football stadium.
Why the Turnout Was So High
It’s kinda wild when you think about it. 2020 saw a 66.8% turnout rate among eligible voters. That’s the highest we’ve seen since 1900.
Why? A few reasons.
First, the pandemic forced states to make voting way easier. Mail-in ballots became the norm for millions of people who usually wouldn't have trekked to a polling place. Second, the political climate was incredibly polarized. People felt like their vote actually mattered more than usual.
Experts like those at the Pew Research Center noted that Biden made significant gains with suburban voters and managed to hold onto enough of the "non-college white" vote in the Rust Belt to tip the scales.
A Close Race Despite the 81 Million
Even though Biden had 7 million more votes than Trump, the election was actually "close" in a very specific way.
If you shifted just about 43,000 votes across three states—Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin—the Electoral College would have ended in a 269-269 tie. In that scenario, the House of Representatives would have decided the presidency. It’s a sobering reminder that while 81 million is a huge number, the geography of those votes is what determines who sits in the Oval Office.
Moving Forward
Understanding the 2020 totals helps explain why election data is so scrutinized now. The sheer volume of 158 million total ballots cast changed the way campaigns approach "get out the vote" efforts.
If you want to verify these numbers for yourself, the best place to go is the Federal Election Commission (FEC) or the National Archives, which hold the official certificates of ascertainment. Most news sites use the Associated Press data, which is generally considered the gold standard for real-time and historical calling of races.
To get a deeper sense of how your specific area voted, check your local County Auditor or Secretary of State website. They usually provide precinct-level data that shows exactly how many people in your neighborhood contributed to those 81 million votes. You can also look up the "Official Results of the 2020 Presidential Election" PDF released by the FEC for a state-by-state breakdown of every single candidate, including third-party ones like Jo Jorgensen, who cleared over 1.8 million votes herself.