Joe Biden · Deep dive

Reach

81,283,501votes

The largest total ever cast. So was the loser’s that year — both beat the old record.

Who can he move, and how many? He stood once as the nominee and took 81,283,501 votes — the largest total ever cast for a presidential candidate. That figure needs its control printed beside it: in the same election the losing candidate took 74.2 million, also above the previous record. What survives the control is the share, 51.31%, second of the five elections verified here and one of only three majorities among them.

Six of six — the base set is complete

Every subject at this tier is asked the same six questions, fixed before the subject is chosen so the set cannot be picked to suit an argument. The others written for this record are Private Money, The Output, Affiliations, The Legal Record and Standing. With this one the base set is complete, so the overlay dives — the ones specific to what this subject has been — are unblocked. None of them could have been started before now.

The same question is answered for Donald Trump and Barack Obama, from the same publications — and both of those records can watch a subject move between their own contests, where this one cannot.

Back to the full record.

81.3m

votes, the largest total ever cast

For any presidential candidate. 11.8m above the old record

74.2m

and the losing candidate that year

Also above the old record — which is what the first figure is worth

51.31%

share of all votes cast

Second of the five verified here; one of three majorities

3.40%

voted for President, not for the House

The narrowest of the three elections measured

election contested as nominee

So nothing on this page is a trend — every comparison is with someone else

2020, every measure the FEC publishes

A bare majority of the map, a clearer one of the votes

One contest as the nominee, so this is a description rather than a trajectory.

Votes for him	81,283,501
Share of all votes cast	51.31%
Opponent	Donald J. Trump
Votes for the opponent	74,223,975 (46.85%)
All other candidates	2,922,155
Electoral votes	306 to 232
States and DC carried	26 of 51
Total turnout	158,429,631

Reading it

One contest, so this table is a description rather than a trajectory. He carried 26 of the 51 units — a bare majority of them — while taking 51.31% of the votes cast, which is the ordinary shape of a national result: the popular margin is wider than the map. Maine and Nebraska split their electoral votes, so the electoral column and the states-carried column are counting different things and neither reconciles to the other.

Counted as of 2026-08-10. This dive belongs to the record it sits inside. Turnout and the mechanics of voting as subjects in their own right are owned by Mail Voting and Voter Rolls.