Who Won the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election? Bidens Official Result Explained

Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The Democratic nominee defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, winning 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, was elected vice president. Americans voted in the general election on Tuesday, November 3, 2020; the official electoral count was completed in January 2021.

Biden also received more votes nationwide. The Federal Election Commission's official compilation, based on state election offices, records 81,268,924 popular votes for Biden (51.31%) and 74,216,154 for Trump (46.86%). Those are the FEC's published totals, rather than election-night estimates. For the underlying documents, see the FEC's official 2020 presidential results and the National Archives' 2020 Electoral College record.

The 2020 election result at a glance

The election had candidates beyond the two major-party nominees, so the percentages above do not add to 100%. Biden won the national popular vote by more than seven million votes, but the electoral vote is what determined who became president. The National Archives confirms all 538 electoral votes were cast for the two leading presidential candidates, with 270 needed for a majority.

Why 306 electoral votes made Biden the winner

The United States does not elect its president through a single nationwide popular-vote contest. Voters in each state, and in the District of Columbia, determine which presidential electors are appointed under that jurisdiction's rules. The electors then vote for president and vice president. In 2020, there were 538 electoral votes, making 270 the winning majority.

Most states award all their electoral votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions, allocating some votes by congressional district. In 2020, Maine's four votes were split three for Biden and one for Trump, while Nebraska's five were split one for Biden and four for Trump. This helps explain why the national map cannot be interpreted simply as a count of states won. The National Archives' explanation of the Electoral College describes the process, while its 2020 result page gives the actual state-by-state allocation for that election.

For a concrete example, Biden won Arizona's 11 electoral votes. The FEC records 1,672,143 Arizona popular votes for Biden and 1,661,686 for Trump, a margin of 10,457. Winning the state by that margin produced all 11 of Arizona's electoral votes under its winner-take-all rule. The electoral result was therefore much more consequential than the state's comparatively narrow popular-vote margin might suggest.

Which states changed the outcome?

Compared with the 2016 presidential election, Biden carried five states that Trump had won four years earlier: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Their 2020 electoral-vote allocations were 11, 16, 16, 20 and 10, respectively. These shifts were important to Biden's path past 270. The 2016 Electoral College records and 2020 records allow readers to compare the states directly.

Georgia was particularly close. According to the FEC's certified state totals, Biden received 2,473,633 votes to Trump's 2,461,854, a difference of 11,779. Georgia's Secretary of State conducted a full manual statewide audit and subsequently a recount requested by the Trump campaign. The state announced its recertification on December 7, 2020, stating that the recounts upheld the original winner. These were checks on a close state race, not changes to the eventual national result.

Biden also won a single electoral vote in Nebraska's Second Congressional District, while Trump won the state overall. Trump carried several large states, including Florida and Texas, but those electoral votes did not make up the difference. All of these allocations refer specifically to the 2020 election; electoral-vote counts in some states changed after the subsequent census.

When did the result become official?

Different dates are often mentioned because election reporting, state certification, Electoral College voting and the congressional count are separate steps. An election-night lead or a news organization's projection is not the same thing as the completed constitutional process.

• November 3, 2020: General Election Day. State and local officials counted and canvassed ballots under applicable rules; the nationwide outcome was not an official final count that night.
• December 14, 2020: Presidential electors met in their respective jurisdictions and cast their electoral votes after states determined their electors.
• January 6–7, 2021: Congress counted the electoral votes in Washington, D.C. The session was interrupted by violence at the U.S. Capitol. The National Archives records completion at 3:44 a.m. on January 7 in Washington, Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC−05:00), equivalent to 08:44 UTC on January 7.
• January 20, 2021: Biden was sworn in as the 46th president, and Harris became vice president.

The final congressional count was Biden 306, Trump 232. The National Archives' official result and congressional-count notes provide documentation of that outcome. The National Archives' Biden biography independently confirms his January 20 inauguration.

Did recounts, objections or legal challenges change who won?

No. The final electoral count remained 306–232. Trump and allies disputed aspects of the election, and several states conducted additional reviews or recounts. Those disputes should be distinguished from certified results: allegations and objections are not themselves proof that the reported winner was wrong.

Georgia provides a documented example of what a recount did. Its official statewide audit account says the manual tally confirmed the original outcome. The state later recertified the presidential result after another recount. At the congressional count, objections were made to electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania, but neither objection was sustained by both houses, so those electoral votes were counted. That conclusion comes from the National Archives' record, not from a campaign statement or television projection.

This distinction matters when answering who won: political disagreement about an election is historically relevant, but it does not replace the official state results and the Electoral College count. The documented winner of the 2020 presidential election is Biden.

Did Biden win both the popular vote and the Electoral College?

Yes. These are two different measurements that happened to point to the same winner in 2020. Biden received a majority of the votes recorded in the FEC's national presidential totals and a majority of the electoral votes. It is possible for those outcomes to diverge in other elections; the National Archives' Electoral College FAQ explains why. To understand the 2020 outcome, use the electoral tally to identify the president-elect and the popular-vote totals to understand nationwide voter support.

How can you check the result yourself?

Start with the FEC's table for the November 3, 2020 presidential general election. Its first page lists all state electoral votes, and subsequent pages provide the candidate-by-candidate popular-vote totals. Then check the National Archives' 2020 page for the votes actually cast by electors and the notes on Congress's count. If a particular state's margin or recount is in question, consult that state's original election authority. This approach avoids confusing preliminary election-night figures, projections or later commentary with final official records.

Bottom line: Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election, 306–232 in the Electoral College, and won the national popular vote. Kamala Harris was elected vice president. The result was counted by Congress in January 2021 and Biden took office on January 20, 2021. That remains the historical result regardless of elections held in later years.