Did Obama Get More Votes Than Registered Voters

The claim: Joe Biden won the about votes in history, though he won a record low number of counties

More a month later Election 24-hour interval, the votes accept been counted and the results of the presidential competition are complete. Analysis of those results, though, has simply simply begun.

A number of conservatives, for example, have started to break down vote totals by county.

Students for Trump took to Instagram on Dec. half-dozen to post a comparison of county-level wins by President-elect Joe Biden in 2020 and former President Barack Obama in 2008.

"Did Biden win more than votes than any president in history? He won a record depression of 17% of counties," the meme reads. "Biden won 477 counties while Obama in 2008 won 873..."

"Something doesn't seem to add up," the system added in the caption

January Morgan, a bourgeois activist, posted a similar meme on Facebook on Dec. half dozen.

"Trying to figure out how Biden won a record low of merely 16.7% of all U.S. counties yet supposedly won the election with the most votes in history," the post read.

"Must be new math," she added in the caption.

Students for Trump and Morgan accept not responded to requests from The states TODAY for annotate.

Fact check:Trump lost the 2020 presidential election

Joe Biden received over 81 meg votes, the most in history

In the presidential election, there were 81,282,903 votes cast for Biden and 74,223,030 votes cast for President Donald Trump, according to a current tally from USA TODAY.

Both Biden and Trump racked up higher vote totals than Obama, who previously held the record – 69,498,516 votes in 2008, per U.s. TODAY.

Fact cheque:Joe Biden has secured enough electors from certified results to be elected president

What most canton-level results?

On November. x, the Brookings Establishment published a report on county-level results. The report showed that Biden won 477 counties, while Trump won 2,497 counties. Results from dozens of counties were not finalized at the fourth dimension, per Time magazine.

According to that data, Biden won simply 16% of counties with finalized results.

On Dec. 8, the think tank updated its report with new data. The updated report showed that Biden won 509 counties, while Trump won ii,547 counties. Results from 28 counties have still not been finalized, per Brookings Institution.

But according to the updated information, Biden won 16.seven% of counties with finalized results. That represents a record-low proportion for a winning presidential candidate.

Obama set the previous record in 2012 – with 689 counties, equal to 22%. Before that, he too gear up a tape in 2008 with simply 28% of counties, per NBC News.

Fact check:Image from 2017 White House event altered to make merits almost votes for Biden

Counties vary past population, so county wins don't correlate with the popular vote

Ultimately, the fact that Biden and Obama were victorious in a relatively small number of counties is not relevant to their popular vote numbers.

That'due south because there is an incredible amount of variance in county population size, per a report past the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some counties have minuscule populations – for example, Hawaii's Kalawao County has just 88 residents, and Texas' Loving County has 169 residents.

Other counties have enormous populations – for example, California's Los Angeles County has 10.1 million residents, and Illinois' Melt Canton has 5.2 meg residents.

The same 2017 report by the U.S. Census Bureau found that more than than half of the U.S. population lives in just 143 counties, or 4.3% of all counties.

Therefore, it's plausible that Joe Biden set a popular vote record by carrying only 509 counties, or 17% of all counties.

Fact check:Biden won pop, Electoral College votes in several battleground states

Ou r rating: Missing co nte xt

Nosotros rate memes that call into question whether Joe Biden won the nearly ever votes based on the fact that he won a record-low number of counties as MISSING CONTEXT, considering without additional context they could be misleading. With over 81 1000000 votes, Biden received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history. Information technology is also true that he won a record-low number of counties – just counties vary by population size, from those with a few hundred people to others with millions of residents, and so county wins don't correlate with the popular vote.

Our fact-check sources:

USA TODAY, accessed Dec. 9, 2020 Presidential Election Results & Balloter Map
USA TODAY, Nov. 5, Joe Biden makes history with total votes received, beating Barack Obama's record
Time Mag, Nov. xiii, Trump Made the Economy His Bulletin. Biden Won Information technology
Brookings Institution, Nov. 10, Biden-voting counties equal 70% of America's economy. What does this mean for the nation's political-economic dissever?
NBC News, December. 4, 2012, Obama won a record-low share of U.Southward. counties — only he won them big
Concern Insider, May 24, 27 United states of america counties with wide open spaces if you want to escape crowded cities
U.S. Census Bureau, April xviii, 2019, New Census Bureau Estimates Show Counties in South and Westward Lead Nation in Population Growth
U.Due south. Census Bureau, Oct. 24, 2017, More than Than Half of U.South. Population in 4.vi Percent of Counties

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