Biden tops Obama’s 2008 popular vote record. Trump is poised to do the same
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Former Vice President Joe Biden has broken Barack Obama’s popular vote record set in 2008, and President Donald Trump appears likely to do so as well.
As of Wednesday morning, Biden had more than 69.5 million votes and Trump had more than 67 million, according to the Associated Press.
Obama defeated Sen. John McCain in 2008 with a record 69,498,516 votes.
Pollster Nate Silver projects that Trump also will surpass Obama’s total, since several million votes remain to be counted.
“It probably works out to Biden getting 52-ish percent of the popular vote on a turnout of 155 million-ish votes, which would be around 80 million,” Silver wrote on Twitter. “Trump might get say 73-75 million.”
It probably works out to Biden getting 52-ish percent of the popular vote on a turnout of 155 million-ish votes, which would be around 80 million. Trump might get say 73-75 million. Likely the top two popular vote totals in US history, both surpassing Obama '08.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 4, 2020
Trump has already beaten his 2016 popular vote total of more than 62.9 million against Hillary Clinton.
The projected popular vote total of 159.8 million would be a record high turnout for the United States, CNBC reports. Several states neared their turnout records via absentee ballots even before Election Day.
The popular vote counts the raw votes cast for each candidate in the election, but a candidate must gain at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
Neither Trump nor Biden hasreached that total as of Wednesday morning,with several states still counting ballots cast before the close of Election Day. Final results may not be known for several days.
