How many people voted for Biden in 2020? Electoral, popular vote breakdown.

Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read
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It may seem like just yesterday that we voted to elect a new president, but the 2024 race is quickly approaching.

Americans are gearing up for a 2020 rematch with party frontrunners President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The two will debate twice ? once on June 27 and again in September.

Anyone else have deja vu? Here’s everything to know about the numbers that won Biden the presidency in 2020.

How many people voted for Biden in 2020?

Biden received more than 81 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission. That's just over 51% of the popular vote. Biden holds the record for most votes ever won by a U.S. presidential candidate.

He received 306 electoral votes, well past the 270 needed to win.

The Electoral College is the presidential voting process established in the Constitution. Generally, the candidate who won the most votes in a state gets all that state’s electoral votes ? though Maine and Nebraska split up these votes. For example, Maine cast three of its four electoral votes in the 2020 election for Biden and one for Trump. How many electoral votes a state gets is based on its population size and how many members of Congress it has.

Biden won electoral votes in these states, according to USA TODAY’s election results tracker:

  • Arizona

  • California

  • Colorado

  • Connecticut

  • Delaware

  • Washington, D.C.

  • Georgia

  • Hawaii

  • Illinois

  • Maine (three of four)

  • Maryland

  • Massachusetts

  • Michigan

  • Minnesota

  • Nebraska (one of five)

  • Nevada

  • New Hampshire

  • New Jersey

  • New Mexico

  • New York

  • Oregon

  • Pennsylvania

  • Rhode Island

  • Vermont

  • Virginia

  • Washington

  • Wisconsin

Who won the popular vote in 2020?

Biden won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in the 2020 election.

Winning the popular vote does not necessarily guarantee the presidency, thanks to the Electoral College. There have been five presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency. In 2016, for example, Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227 but lost the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How many votes did Biden get in 2020? Past election results.

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