Joe Biden emerged the victor over Donald Trump in a tight election that was not decided until days after the polls closed on Tuesday. Here are
numbers that help explain a historic U.S. election https://reut.rs/2JFGI3o
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The coronavirus crisis made voting by mail the go-to option for some 65 million Americans, close to half of those who voted. The mail-in ballot surge, tracked by the U.S. Elections Project, also overwhelmed election workers in many states, keeping the world on edge for days 2/11
From the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, Biden won more votes than Trump in suburbs and other areas that skew toward affluence. Turnout in suburban counties was on track to rise about 18% as college-educated voters repudiated Trump. Turnout rose less in largely rural counties 3/11
Americans refreshed their screens repeatedly to track an extremely close race in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately determines a winner. The popular vote was a lot less close, with Biden’s margin of victory at more than 4 million votes and rising 4/11
The percentage of white male voters who supported Trump this year was 58%, but the president had less pull with this key slice of his political base than in 2016, according to an Edison Research exit poll that showed his support was 4 percentage points lower this year 5/11
Compared with four years ago, Trump gained more than 2 million votes in the counties most ravaged by the coronavirus. That was fewer than Biden picked up relative to his party’s take in 2016, but still an increase 6/11
The number
might look like a football score, but it’s a key measure of how the political landscape changed from 2016. In Michigan, Biden won Kent County, an affluent, long-time Republican stronghold where Trump held his final 2016 and 2020 campaign rallies 7/11

Trump lost Florida’s Miami-Dade County, a Democratic stronghold, by 7 percentage points, compared to the 29-point loss he suffered there in 2016. The president won the state again this year in part because he got more support from Latino voters, especially around Miami 8/11
Those figures represent the biggest victory margins in a state or the District of Columbia for Biden and Trump. Biden’s came in the Democratic bastion of Washington, D.C., while Trump’s came in Wyoming 9/11
Trump’s ranking as the all-time vote getter in one election, right behind Biden. And right behind Trump? Biden’s old boss, former President Barack Obama. Two is also the number of times Trump lost the popular vote 10/11
The number of times Trump has conceded a presidential election. His lawyers are mounting legal challenges to Biden’s victory. Read the full story https://reut.rs/2JFGI3o via @langejason @bradheath 11/11