Democratic nominee Joe Biden has surpassed former President Barack Obama's 2008 popular vote record and has won more overall votes than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history.
With ballots still being counted, Biden is leading the popular vote with 72,187,250 votes (50.4 percent) against President Donald Trump who has earned 68,691,756 votes (48 percent) as of Thursday morning (EST), according to the Associated Press. Biden's current vote tally surpasses Obama's record of 69,498,516 set in 2008 in a race against Sen. John McCain, while Trump is on track to exceed the record as well.
Winning the popular vote does not mean winning the election. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote against Trump, surpassing him in over 2 million votes, but failed to receive enough electoral college votes.
On Wednesday, Biden made comments about his lead in the popular vote, saying that it is "of special significance to me that we've won with the majority of the American people," while declaring that he believes that he would become victorious.
"And every indication is that the majority will grow. We have a popular vote lead of nearly 3 million votes, and every indication is that will grow," the former vice president said.
On Thursday morning the election remained undecided as several battleground states such as Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia were still counting votes. Trump on Wednesday evening declared victory in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead,” Trump wrote.
No news outlets or organizations have declared the states for Trump.