Biden becomes first US presidential candidate to win over 80 million votes

Washington, November 25

Joe Biden has become the US first presidential candidate to win over 80 million votes, with his record-breaking number of popular votes still likely to increase as ballots continue to be counted across the nation, according to a media report on Wednesday.

President-elect Biden won more than 80,011,000 votes as of Tuesday, while President Donald Trump had more than 73,800,000 votes. Trump’s votes make him the candidate to win the second-highest number of popular votes in American history, CNN reported.

Biden, a Democrat, has secured 306 electoral votes, while Trump, a Republican has 232. The winner in the race to the White House should get at least 270 electoral votes from the 538-member Electoral College.

Americans voted by mail in record numbers this year to protect themselves from exposure to coronavirus in the middle of a global pandemic, and experts had warned for months that there would be a lengthy vote count that could extend for days following Election Day on November 3.

The new record set by Biden reinforces his decisive win over Trump, who has yet to concede the election even as his administration has started the formal presidential transition process after the General Services Administration acknowledged the win on Monday.

President Trump finally agreed to allow the formal transition process to begin on Monday, nearly three weeks after the presidential election.

Yet he still refuses to admit defeat, repeating unsubstantiated claims that the vote was “rigged”.

Trump’s efforts to challenge the results in key states in courts have so far failed. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania and Nevada officially certified Biden’s victory, a day after the same outcome was announced in Michigan. — PTI