Joe Biden breaks Obama's record, amasses most votes in US election history

US election 2020: US election 2020: Donald Trump and Joe Biden continue to fight it out as votes are counted across the United States, including in many key states including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. | Live election updates here

Also read: Trump voters in battleground Arizona fear their votes are invalid due to Sharpie pens. Is 'Sharpiegate' real?

On Wednesday, former American Vice President and Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Biden broke the record for receiving the highest votes ever for a presidential candidate in the history of US politics.

US election 2020: Biden gets over 70 million votes

By 2.30 PM ET, Biden had clocked in over 70.8 million votes, as per results put together by Decision Desk HQ. Biden broke Obama’s record, who had received 69,456,897 votes in 2008.

Currently, the ballots are being counted across the country, especially in battleground states. As of now, no candidate has secured 270 electoral votes, which are necessary to win the elections.

Also read: As Trump demands vote count to stop in battleground states, #CountEveryVote trends

Most polls claimed that Biden would win the elections, but with both the candidates fighting neck-and-neck, the results remain hard to predict.

As of now, Biden is leading the incumbent president Donald Trump by 3 million votes, and is expected to win the popular vote.

In 2016 too, Trump had lost popular votes to Hillary Clinton by 3 million. However, he did beat his 2016 numbers, whereby he had secured 62,980,160 votes. This time, he has clocked in 68 million votes.

US election 2020: Trump claims victory

Trump declared his victory before the official count ended, while Joe Biden announced that he will emerge victorious after all the votes are accounted for. 

Also read: US election 2020: Can United States Supreme Court be the final arbiter?

US president Trump had recently called on the counting to stop, while earlier claiming that the results should be declared on the same day as the election - November 3. He also claimed that due to ongoing counting, chances of voting fraud in the elections are high.

In key states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, vote counting is underway. And a ruling by a top court in Pennsylvania had recently allowed counting mail-in ballots that arrive upto 3 days after the election date, something Trump has vowed to challenge.