It feels like a lifetime ago, honestly. The 2020 election was basically the longest week in American history, where everyone suddenly became an expert on the geography of Maricopa County and the mail-in ballot laws of Pennsylvania. We all sat there, glued to those glowing red and blue maps, waiting for the needle to move. But when the dust finally settled and the lawyers finished their coffee, the number was clear.
Joe Biden finished with 306 electoral votes.
That’s the short answer. But if you're looking for the "why" and the "how," it gets a lot more interesting than just a single number on a screen. That 306 wasn't just a random win; it was the exact same number Donald Trump hit in 2016, which is a bit of cosmic irony if you think about it. It represents a massive shift in a few key places that changed the entire trajectory of the country.
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The Magic Number: How Many Electoral Votes Did Biden Get?
To win the White House, you need 270. Biden cleared that bar with 36 votes to spare. He managed to flip several states that Trump had won four years prior, which is really what did the trick. We're talking about the "Blue Wall" states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Those three states alone are a powerhouse of electoral math. Biden’s win in Pennsylvania was the one that officially pushed him over the 270 threshold on that Saturday morning in November. It was a moment of release for about half the country and a moment of deep frustration for the other half.
But he didn't stop at the Rust Belt.
Biden also managed to snag Arizona and Georgia. These were massive. Georgia hadn't gone for a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992, and Arizona had been solidly Republican since 1996. Winning those two states was a signal that the political map was shifting, maybe for good. When you add up the states he held—like California with its massive 55 votes and New York with 29—and the flips, you arrive at that final tally of 306.
The Breakdown by State
It’s easy to get lost in the big numbers, but the Electoral College is really 51 separate elections happening at once. Here is a look at where those 306 votes actually came from:
Biden won 25 states plus the District of Columbia. He also picked up one electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. Most people forget that Nebraska and Maine don't do the whole "winner-take-all" thing. They split their votes. Biden took three from Maine (the statewide win plus the 1st District) and that lone vote from Nebraska.
The heavy hitters for Biden included California (55), New York (29), Illinois (20), and Pennsylvania (20). Then you had the mid-sized states like Georgia (16), Michigan (16), and Virginia (13). Even the smaller ones, like Delaware and Vermont with 3 votes each, were necessary to build that wall.
On the other side of the aisle, Donald Trump ended up with 232 electoral votes. He won 25 states and grabbed one vote from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. It was a decisive win for Biden, though the popular vote was a different story entirely. Biden won over 81 million popular votes, the most in history, leading Trump by about 7 million. But in the Electoral College, the margins in the swing states were razor-thin—sometimes just a few thousand votes determined who got all the electors for an entire state.
Why the 306 Number Is So Famous
The number 306 is kinda legendary in modern politics now. When Trump won with 306 in 2016, he called it a "landslide." When Biden got the exact same number in 2020, the terminology used by both sides was... let's say, different.
But it’s important to remember that these votes aren't just numbers. They represent groups of real people—electors—who meet in their respective state capitals to cast their ballots. In December 2020, these electors met and officially recorded the 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump. There were no "faithless electors" for Biden this time around, which made the count stick exactly where the projections said it would.
The Certification Drama
You can't talk about the electoral vote count without mentioning January 6, 2021. Usually, the certification of these votes is a boring, ceremonial event that most people ignore while they eat lunch. Not this time.
Congress met to count the certificates of vote from each state. There were objections to the votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania, but they didn't hold up. The House and Senate both voted to reject those objections. Despite the chaos at the Capitol that day, the process eventually finished in the early hours of January 7. Vice President Mike Pence officially announced the final tally: 306 for Biden, 232 for Trump.
It was the final stamp on an election that felt like it would never end.
Key Takeaways for Future Elections
If you're watching the next election cycle, keep these points in mind:
- The 270 Goal: It’s all that matters. You can win the popular vote by millions and still lose the White House if you don't hit 270.
- The Rust Belt is King: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are the ultimate swing states. If a candidate sweeps these three, their path to 270 becomes much, much easier.
- Sun Belt Shifts: Georgia and Arizona are no longer "safe" for anyone. Expect campaigns to dump hundreds of millions of dollars into these states from now on.
- Congressional Districts Matter: Watch Nebraska and Maine. That single electoral vote in Omaha or rural Maine can actually decide a tied election if the map splits 269-269.
To really understand the current political landscape, you should look at the 2020 precinct-level maps. They show that while Biden won the "count," the country is deeply divided between urban centers and rural areas. Understanding that divide is the real secret to predicting how many electoral votes a candidate will get in the future. Check your state's specific laws on how electors are chosen; some states have moved to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which could eventually change how this whole system works.