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Not only did Democrat Joe Biden pass the necessary 270 electoral votes threshold to become the next U.S. president, he also scored more votes than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history.
Biden received 75 million votes as of Saturday evening, according to the Associated Press, eclipsing President Barack Obama’s previous popular vote record of 69 million votes in the 2008 election. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, had garnered about 70.7 million votes as of Saturday, the AP said.
Overall, Biden has accumulated 4.3 million more votes than Trump in a historic U.S. Presidential election that generated the highest voter turnout in over a century.
The President-elect’s milestone came after days of anxious waiting by millions of Americans for final voting counts in pivotal battleground states like Pennsylvania. As of Saturday, President-elect Biden had 290 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 214, the AP reported.
Biden officially topped Obama’s previous popular vote record on Wednesday when he reached 69.9 million votes. On that same day, Trump had about 67 million votes.
Wednesday was a pivotal day for Biden when it became clear that he had won Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that became particularly crucial in the election. Earlier on that day, Biden acknowledged his momentum during a press conference, but he did not declare victory.
“We believe when the count is finished, we’ll be the winner,” Biden said at the time.
The 2020 presidential election has resulted in the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to the nonpartisan U.S. Elections Project. That site said that there have been over 160 million votes cast during this election, thanks in part to young Americans who appeared to have voted in record numbers.
About 139 million votes were cast in 2016.
