Former Vice President Joe Biden has now received more votes for president than any other candidate in U.S. election history, officially surpassing former President Barack Obama's 2008 popular vote numbers on Wednesday afternoon. Biden had 69,949,918 votes as of 2:30 p.m. ET with several states still tallying results, while Obama notched 69,498,516 total.
The news follows reports on Tuesday night that the 2020 election was shaping up to have the highest voter turnout since 1908, when 65 percent of eligible Americans voted, The New York Times reports. The country was on track for around 160 million votes this year, which would put the eligible turnout rate at around 67 percent.
Biden's lead over President Trump in the popular vote isn't likely to let up either; experts, in fact, say his margin over Trump is only likely to grow at this point. Even so, Trump's totals are also appearing like they're going to pass Obama's 2008 record, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver tweeted. Jeva Lange
The Week
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