Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Where are the ‘20 million missing votes’? Dems cling to false hopes of huge gap between Biden and Harris

Social media has been awash with claims of ‘missing’ votes after Donald Trump’s sweeping victory - but there’s a simple explaination for the apparent gulf between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ vote tallies

Melissa Goldin
Thursday 07 November 2024 15:54
Comments
Harris urges country to accept and 'honor' election results

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, social media users began pushing two conflicting narratives to suggest election fraud.

One revived false claims by Trump that the 2020 vote was stolen from him and the other questioned how Vice President Kamala Harris could have received so many fewer votes in 2024 than President Joe Biden in 2020.

Both narratives hinge on a supposed 20 million vote gap between Harris and Biden.

Many democrats have been despondant after the loss to Donald Trump
Many democrats have been despondant after the loss to Donald Trump (EPA)

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: President Joe Biden won approximately 20 million more votes in the 2020 election than Vice President Kamala Harris earned in the 2024 race, proving either that Trump has cheated his way to a second term or that there was widespread fraud four years ago.

THE FACTS: The claims are unfounded. Votes from Tuesday’s presidential election are still being counted, so any comparison with previous races would not be accurate. In addition, election officials and agencies monitoring the vote have reported no significant issues with Tuesday’s election. Claims of widespread fraud in 2020 have been debunked countless times.

“As we have said repeatedly, our election infrastructure has never been more secure and the election community never better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free, and fair elections for the American people,” Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said in a statement.

“This is what we saw [on Tuesday] in the peaceful and secure exercise of democracy. Importantly, we have no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.”

Kamala Harris urged people to accept the results of the election
Kamala Harris urged people to accept the results of the election (REUTERS)

Multiple Pennsylvania officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, said that they had not seen any signs of cheating and called the election secure after Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday that there was “a lot of talking about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia.”

And yet, posts circulated online claiming otherwise, receiving hundreds of thousands of likes and shares.

“20 MILLION VOTES WERENT COUNTED,” reads one X post. “I KNEW IT TRUMP CHEATED.”

Another X post, which shared a bar graph of presidential election results from 2012-2024, states: “If these numbers are accurate, this is indicative of a stolen 2020 election. 20 million votes just disappeared. In other words there were potentially 20 million fraudulent votes last cycle. That’s an insane number.”

The Democratic candidates in 2012 and 2016 both won nearly 66 million votes, a bit less than Harris’ current count.

Harris had won about 67 million votes as of Wednesday afternoon, compared to the approximately 81 million Biden garnered in 2020 — a difference of about 14 million. But that gap is decreasing as the vote count continues. No state has counted 100% of its ballots yet.

(PA Graphics)
(PA Graphics) (PA Graphics)

Trump is so far lagging behind his 2020 total by approximately 2 million votes, but this gap is also decreasing as more votes are counted.

Despite persistent claims that Trump won the 2020 election, including from Trump himself, there is no evidence that this is true.

Biden won the Electoral College with 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots. Many battleground states conducted recounts or thorough reviews of their results, all of which confirmed Biden’s victory.

An exhaustive Associated Press investigation in 2021 found fewer than 475 instances of confirmed voter fraud across six battleground states — nowhere near the magnitude required to sway the outcome of the presidential election.

Trump was repeatedly advised by members of his own administration that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Numerous legal challenges alleging voter fraud pursued by the Trump campaign and its backers were heard and roundly rejected by dozens of courts at the state and federal level, including by judges whom Trump appointed.

The allegations now spreading about fraud in the 2024 race echo many baseless claims that emerged four years ago.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump on Wednesday afternoon to concede the race and congratulate him.

“We must respect the results of this election,” she said in her concession speech.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in