Joe Biden has become the first presidential candidate to win more than 80 million votes, with his record-breaking number of popular votes still likely to increase in the coming days as ballots continue to be counted across the nation.
As of Tuesday evening, Biden had won more than 80,011,000 votes, while President Donald Trump had more than 73,800,000. The President’s votes make him the candidate to win the second-highest number of popular votes in American history.
Biden has won 306 electoral votes, while Trump has 232. Two hundred and seventy electoral votes are needed to become president.
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.
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.
A number of states have started certifying their election results, including Pennsylvania and Nevada, both of which completed their certification on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s certifications followed a dramatic meeting on Monday of Michigan’s state election board, which also voted to certify election results for Biden after one of the board’s two Republican members decided to abstain.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Kelly Mena contributed to this report.