In total, 158,397,726 popular votes were cast in the 2020 US election. That was a total of 66.9% of the eligible voting population who participated in the election whose leading candidates were Joe Biden from the Democratic Party and Donald Trump from the Republican Party.
Popular votes
The 2020 election recorded the highest turnout of voters since 1900—over 158 million votes were cast during the election and over 100 million votes were cast during the early voting before the election. Each of the two main tickets received more than 74 million votes which surpassed Obama’s record of 69.5 million votes from 2008.
Joe Biden received over 81 million votes which now holds the record of the highest votes ever received by a single person in the US presidential election. This gave Biden 51.3% of the popular vote, setting a noticeable gap with the runner up. Donald Trump, the then incumbent president received over 74 million votes becoming the eleventh incumbent president in history and the first since 1992, to lose a bid for a second term.
Electoral votes
After Biden secured the popular votes, the results of the electoral college did not come as a surprise. However, there have been five presidents in US history who lost the popular votes but emerged as the president of the country, thanks to the electoral votes.
The electoral college consists of 538 electors who participated in the election. Unlike the 2016 election which had 7 faithless electors, the 2020 election had the participation of all electors.
Biden won 25 states, the District of Columbia and one congressional district in Nebraska, giving a total of 306 electoral votes while Trump won 25 states and one congressional district in Maine, giving a total of 232 votes. Biden took five states which were won by Trump in 2016: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
2020 Electoral Data
The table below shows the popular and electoral votes from each state for Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the 2020 elections.
| State ordistrict | Biden/HarrisDemocratic | Trump/PenceRepublican | ||||
| Votes | % | EV | Votes | % | EV | |
| Alabama | 849,624 | 36.57% | – | 1,441,170 | 62.03% | 9 |
| Alaska | 153,778 | 42.77% | – | 189,951 | 52.83% | 3 |
| Arizona | 1,672,143 | 49.36% | 11 | 1,661,686 | 49.06% | – |
| Ark. | 423,932 | 34.78% | – | 760,647 | 62.40% | 6 |
| Calif. | 11,110,639 | 63.48% | 55 | 6,006,518 | 34.32% | – |
| Colo. | 1,804,352 | 55.40% | 9 | 1,364,607 | 41.90% | – |
| Conn. | 1,080,831 | 59.26% | 7 | 714,717 | 39.19% | – |
| Del. | 296,268 | 58.74% | 3 | 200,603 | 39.77% | – |
| D.C. | 317,323 | 92.15% | 3 | 18,586 | 5.40% | – |
| Florida | 5,297,045 | 47.86% | – | 5,668,731 | 51.22% | 29 |
| Georgia | 2,473,633 | 49.47% | 16 | 2,461,854 | 49.24% | – |
| Hawaii | 366,130 | 63.73% | 4 | 196,864 | 34.27% | – |
| Idaho | 287,021 | 33.07% | – | 554,119 | 63.84% | 4 |
| Illinois | 3,471,915 | 57.54% | 20 | 2,446,891 | 40.55% | – |
| Indiana | 1,242,498 | 40.96% | – | 1,729,857 | 57.03% | 11 |
| Iowa | 759,061 | 44.89% | – | 897,672 | 53.09% | 6 |
| Kansas | 570,323 | 41.51% | – | 771,406 | 56.14% | 6 |
| Ky. | 772,474 | 36.15% | – | 1,326,646 | 62.09% | 8 |
| La. | 856,034 | 39.85% | – | 1,255,776 | 58.46% | 8 |
| Maine † | 435,072 | 53.09% | 2 | 360,737 | 44.02% | – |
| ME-1Tooltip Maine’s 1st congressional district | 266,376 | 60.11% | 1 | 164,045 | 37.02% | – |
| ME-2Tooltip Maine’s 2nd congressional district | 168,696 | 44.82% | – | 196,692 | 52.26% | 1 |
| Md. | 1,985,023 | 65.36% | 10 | 976,414 | 32.15% | – |
| Mass. | 2,382,202 | 65.60% | 11 | 1,167,202 | 32.14% | – |
| Mich. | 2,804,040 | 50.62% | 16 | 2,649,852 | 47.84% | – |
| Minn. | 1,717,077 | 52.40% | 10 | 1,484,065 | 45.28% | – |
| Miss. | 539,398 | 41.06% | – | 756,764 | 57.60% | 6 |
| Mo. | 1,253,014 | 41.41% | – | 1,718,736 | 56.80% | 10 |
| Mont. | 244,786 | 40.55% | – | 343,602 | 56.92% | 3 |
| Neb. † | 374,583 | 39.17% | – | 556,846 | 58.22% | 2 |
| NE-1Tooltip Nebraska’s 1st congressional district | 132,261 | 41.09% | – | 180,290 | 56.01% | 1 |
| NE-2Tooltip Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district | 176,468 | 51.95% | 1 | 154,377 | 45.45% | – |
| NE-3Tooltip Nebraska’s 3rd congressional district | 65,854 | 22.34% | – | 222,179 | 75.36% | 1 |
| Nev. | 703,486 | 50.06% | 6 | 669,890 | 47.67% | – |
| N.H. | 424,937 | 52.71% | 4 | 365,660 | 45.36% | – |
| N.J. | 2,608,400 | 57.33% | 14 | 1,883,313 | 41.40% | – |
| N.M. | 501,614 | 54.29% | 5 | 401,894 | 43.50% | – |
| N.Y. | 5,244,886 | 60.87% | 29 | 3,251,997 | 37.74% | – |
| N.C. | 2,684,292 | 48.59% | – | 2,758,775 | 49.93% | 15 |
| N.D. | 115,042 | 31.78% | – | 235,751 | 65.12% | 3 |
| Ohio | 2,679,165 | 45.24% | – | 3,154,834 | 53.27% | 18 |
| Okla. | 503,890 | 32.29% | – | 1,020,280 | 65.37% | 7 |
| Oregon | 1,340,383 | 56.45% | 7 | 958,448 | 40.37% | – |
| Pa. | 3,458,229 | 49.85% | 20 | 3,377,674 | 48.69% | – |
| R.I. | 307,486 | 59.39% | 4 | 199,922 | 38.61% | – |
| S.C. | 1,091,541 | 43.43% | – | 1,385,103 | 55.11% | 9 |
| S.D. | 150,471 | 35.61% | – | 261,043 | 61.77% | 3 |
| Tenn. | 1,143,711 | 37.45% | – | 1,852,475 | 60.66% | 11 |
| Texas | 5,259,126 | 46.48% | – | 5,890,347 | 52.06% | 38 |
| Utah | 560,282 | 37.65% | – | 865,140 | 58.13% | 6 |
| Vt. | 242,820 | 66.09% | 3 | 112,704 | 30.67% | – |
| Va. | 2,413,568 | 54.11% | 13 | 1,962,430 | 44.00% | – |
| Wash. | 2,369,612 | 57.97% | 12 | 1,584,651 | 38.77% | – |
| W.Va. | 235,984 | 29.69% | – | 545,382 | 68.62% | 5 |
| Wis. | 1,630,866 | 49.45% | 10 | 1,610,184 | 48.82% | – |
| Wyo. | 73,491 | 26.55% | – | 193,559 | 69.94% | 3 |
| Total | 81,283,501 | 51.31% | 306 | 74,223,975 | 46.85% | 232 |
