There’s no clear winner yet in the 2020 presidential election, but Democratic nominee Joe Biden has already made history by winning the most votes a presidential candidate has ever received in a U.S. election.
The former vice president has amassed more than 70 million votes so far, breaking the record Barack Obama nabbed in 2008 when he secured 69,498,516 votes in his presidential race against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Biden sets the record in an election that could very well have the highest voter turnout in 120 years. Democrats have been incredibly motivated to unseat President Donald Trump, one of the most polarizing presidents in American history, and led a dedicated campaign the past four years to increase voter accessibility and turnout.
Of course, elections are not decided by the popular vote but rather by the candidate who wins the Electoral College. That tabulation was still unclear as of Wednesday evening, but Biden’s path to victory appeared more viable than Trump’s with several media outlets projecting Democratic wins in some key swing states.
“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Tuesday afternoon. “But I am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
Trump, meanwhile, has claimed he’s won the election, telling supporters in the early hours Wednesday that Democrats were trying to steal the election by continuing to count legal, mail-in ballots ― a practice that has been standard in every presidential election. His campaign has launched legal challenges to contest ballots in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and has requested a recount in Wisconsin.
“This is an embarrassment to our country,” the president said early Wednesday. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
He added: “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. It’s a very sad moment. We will win this, and as far as I’m concerned we already have won.”
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