Trump Smashes Obama’s Popular Vote Record by Over 500K
Record puts president ahead of any of his predecessors
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President Donald Trump has broken former President Barack Obama's 2008 popular vote record by over 500,000 votes, putting him ahead of any of his predecessors.
But unofficial election results show Democrat candidate Joe Biden leading Trump with more popular votes than any U.S. president in history.
While Trump was doing five rallies a day in the run-up to the election, Biden was still hiding his basement.
Now the former vice president has somehow managed to shatter Obama's record (69,498,516) by nearly 4.5 million ballots and counting.
The unofficial was reported by the Associated Press (AP) on Friday:
- Biden (73,982,123)
- Trump (70,036,848)
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But as the counting continues, Trump has so far received 500,000 more votes than former President Obama in 2008.
Pollster Nate Silver projected the president would exceed Obama’s 2008 popular vote by over five million.
He also predicted Biden would break the record by a more significant margin.
“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,” he 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
The projected popular vote total is a record high in a presidential election, totaling at least 159.8 million, the “highest voter turnout rate among eligible citizens since 1900,” CNBC reported
The outlet wrote:
Overall, Democrats had an early vote advantage heading into Election Day with 43% of early or absentee votes compared with Republicans’ 37%.
While more Democrats than Republicans voted early by mail, more GOP voters cast ballots early in person than Democrats.
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Several states, including South Carolina and battleground Michigan, saw a historic voter turnout, which was fuelled by record absentee balloting.
A candidate must have 270 Electoral College votes to win, despite the popular vote.
But neither Trump nor Biden reached that total as of Friday, with several states counting votes.
As Democrat late-counted votes trickled in battleground states, Trump watched his lead dry up.
The president vowed to take legal action to challenge election results in crucial swing states.
Trump has been warning of the dangers of mail-in voting for the majority of 2020.
The president described the voting method as "very dangerous," multiple times earlier this year.
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business earleir this year, Trump was asked:
"In terms of voting by mail, vote proxies, what's your take? Do you want that?"
“Voting by mail is very dangerous because people can grab them; people can take that proxy, sign a name," Trump said.
"They can do all sorts of things, especially harvesting," the president added.
In June, Attorney General William Barr also warned mail-in voting “absolutely” opens the flood gates to voter fraud.
“Well, it absolutely opens the floodgates to fraud," Barr said at the time.
"Those things are delivered into mailboxes. They can be taken out,” Barr added.
“There are questions about whether or not it even denies a secret ballot because a lot of the states have you signing the outside of the envelope," he continued.
"So, the person who opens the envelope will know how people voted.”
“There’s no – right now, a foreign country could print up tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots, and be very hard for us to detect which was the right and which was the wrong ballot,” Barr continued.
“So, I think it can upset and undercut the confidence in the integrity of our elections.
"If anything, we should tighten them up right now.”
