The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on December 20, 2020 in a Facebook post: \"‘Simple math’ shows Biden claims 13 million more votes than there were eligible voters who voted in 2020 election.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"pants- fire\\"](\\" * Elections * Facebook Fact-checks * Facebook posts ![\\"Felecia](\\" Felecia Rotellini, a member of Arizona\'s Electoral College, signs the Arizona Presidential Elector Ballot certificate Dec. 14, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP) ![\\"Amy](\\" By Amy Sherman December 23, 2020 # Bogus analysis leads to ridiculous claim about Biden votes #### If Your Time is short * Biden received about 81 million votes while Trump received 74 million. That translated to Biden’s Electoral College win of 306 to 232, which electors made official Dec. 14. * Federal security officials have said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election. See the sources for this fact-check President Donald Trump and his allies have continued to flood social media with falsehoods about the Nov. 3 election, including that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters by a massive amount. \"REVEALED: ‘Simple math’ shows Biden claims 13 million more votes than there were eligible voters who voted in 2020 election,\" stated a headline on The Gateway Pundit. Trump retweeted the Gateway Pundit story. That story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The \"simple math\" about Biden’s voters is wrong. Gateway Pundit relies on bogus calculation to lead to false claim The Gateway Pundit cites a tweet by Bill Binney, who worked at the National Security Agency from 1965 to 2001. Binney cited a Washington Post story about historic voter turnout in the November election. The Washington Post story said 66.2% of the voting-eligible population cast a vote. (The United States Elections Project calculates the eligible population by adjusting the voting-age population for non-citizens and ineligible felons, depending on state law.) While the Washington Post clearly cited the voting-eligible population, Binney and The Gateway Pundit instead looked up figures for the number of registered voters — even though not every American who is eligible to vote takes the steps to register. Binney wrote that if there are 212 million registered voters and 66.2% voted, that means about 140 million voted. If Trump received 74 million votes, that leaves about 66 million for Biden, Binney wrote. Binney’s implication is that there is no way Biden actually received about 81 million votes. \"These numbers don’t add up to what we are being told. Lies and more Lies!\" Binney tweeted. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on August 19, 2024 in in social media posts Videos show Kamala Harris intoxicated. ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 22, 2024 Binney didn\'t explain why, under this theoretically flawed analysis, it couldn’t have been Trump who had erroneously received millions of votes. The Gateway Pundit added up the number of registered voters and applied the same math formula and reported numbers in the same ballpark as Binney. The writer concluded that if Trump won 74 million votes, that left 67.5 million remaining for Biden. That means \"13 million duplicate or made up ballots were created and counted for Biden!\" But just as Binney did, the Gateway Pundit is plugging in the wrong number — the number of registered voters — while the Washington Post cited the number of adults eligible to vote. The United States Elections Project found there were about 239.2 million eligible voters for the Nov. 3 election. Using that denominator and an approximately 66% turnout rate, it shows that about 158 million people voted for president. The Gateway Pundit also declared that \"Biden committed fraud\" and stole the election by \"millions\" of votes, a ridiculous assertion that included no evidence to back it up. Claims of widespread fraud have been debunked by federal security officials, as well as state election officials, including in GOP-led states such as Georgia. Nationwide, judges tossed out dozens of lawsuits by Trump and his allies that attempted to overturn the election, for lack of evidence. There is one more problem with the faulty claims by Binney and the Gateway Pundit — they rely on outdated data on registered voters. They cited World Population Review’s state-by-state tally of registered voters, but that website shows the number of voters in some states months before the Nov. 3 election. For example, for Florida it shows 14,065,627 voters as of Aug. 31. But the relevant number is how many voters were registered as of the registration deadline, Oct. 6, which was 14,441,869. Our ruling A headline on The Gateway Pundit said, \"REVEALED: ‘Simple math’ shows Biden claims 13 million more votes than there were eligible voters who voted in 2020 election.\" This isn’t a case of simple math; it\'s a case of flawed analysis. The Gateway Pundit conflated registered voters with eligible voters. The two are not the same. There is no evidence that Biden claimed 13 million more votes than was mathematically possible. This statement rates Pants on Fire! #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Gateway Pundit, \"REVEALED: ‘Simple math’ shows Biden claims 13 million more votes than there were eligible voters who voted in 2020 election,\" Dec. 20, 2020 United States Election Project turnout rates and Why not calculate turnout rates as percentage of registered voters? Accessed Dec. 22, 2020 Washington Post, Another good example of how laughably flimsy Trump’s electoral fraud claims are, Dec. 21, 2020 Factcheck.org, Flawed Calculation Behind False Claim of Fraudulent Votes, Dec. 21, 2020 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Statement, Nov. 12, 2020 Georgia Public Radio, Georgia Recertifies Biden Victory As Officials Reject Disinformation, Dec. 7, 2020 Trump twitter archive, Retweet by President Donald Trump, Dec. 20, 2020 PolitiFact, Trump\'s Pants on Fire claim about votes exceeding voters in swing states, Nov. 23, 2020 PolitiFact, Donald Trump has lost dozens of election lawsuits. Here’s why, Dec. 10, 2020 Email interview, Michael McDonald, University of Florida political science professor, Dec. 22, 2020 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Amy Sherman ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview on NBC\'s \"Meet the Press\": A zero-tolerance policy during the Trump administration \"led to less family separation than under Kamala Harris\' border policies.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 26, 2024 in an interview with a podcaster: Vice President Kamala Harris “is a communist. … She is really a Marxist.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 23, 2024 in a speech in Las Vegas: “Kamala cast the tiebreaking vote to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to go after your tip income.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 28, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Walz stated on August 14, 2024 in a speech in California: Former President Donald Trump “cut overtime benefits for millions of workers.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 20, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Pete Buttigieg stated on August 11, 2024 in an interview on CNN State of the Union: Gov. Tim Walz delivered paid family leave in Minnesota but “Republicans are blocking” a Biden-Harris proposal. ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 2, 2024 in a video: In Pompano Beach, Florida, Somali immigrants illegally in the U.S. were in line to get driver’s licenses and “all you need to vote is a driver\'s license.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 27, 2024 in a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota: During the 2020 Minnesota riots after George Floyd’s murder, Gov. Tim Walz didn’t call in the National Guard, “so, I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 3, 2024 in a rally in Atlanta: Kamala Harris “supports mandatory gun confiscation.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • August 7, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “wants to defund the police.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 24, 2024 in a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina: Kamala Harris “supported abolishing ICE.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 29, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 22, 2024 in an Instagram post: There are nine states “where Biden’s name can’t be removed and no one can be added. That’s over 130 electoral votes in the toilet.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ranjan Jindal • July 23, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 17, 2024 in a campaign video: \"Unlike Mike Pence, (JD) Vance said he would have carried out Trump\'s plan to overturn the 2020 election.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Amy Sherman • July 18, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kari Lake stated on July 16, 2024 in in a speech at RNC in Milwaukee: “Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • July 17, 2024 ### Bogus analysis leads to ridiculous claim about Biden votes * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 11, 2024 in an Instagram post: \"Debate moderators made the false claim to Donald Trump that there is nowhere in the United States where abortion is legal up until birth.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a Facebook post: ABC News fired presidential debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Yes on 4 stated on September 10, 2024 in a TV ad: Florida’s six-week abortion law has “no real exceptions. Not for her health. Not even for rape.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: Imagen muestra carnet del Partido Comunista de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Maria Briceño • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Sam Brown stated on August 28, 2024 in a campaign appearance: Proposed Nevada constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights would put “essentially no limit on access to abortion.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 12, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 8, 2024 in a Threads post: “Elon Musk is going to expose Bill Gates soon, says ‘he’s evil.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 6, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Gordon Ramsay calls Tim Walz a ‘woke creep,’ throws him out of Hell’s Kitchen.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: \"ÚLTIMA HORA Río Nilo se pinta de rojo sangre\". ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Marta Campabadal Graus • September 12, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 7, 2024 in a Threads post: Photo shows Elton John wearing a “MAGA” jacket. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Sign me up #### Offices District of Columbia 1800 I Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Florida 801 3rd St. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-821-9494 #### People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis #### State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin #### About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters #### RSS Feeds * Recent Articles and Fact-checks * Recent Fact-checks Suggest a Fact-check #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Copyright ©All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ![\\"\\"](\\" ✕ * * *
Simple math’ shows Biden claims 13 million more votes than there were eligible voters who voted in 2020 election