By any measure, the presidential election in 2000 had been far closer than the 2020 contest. President George W. Bush’s victory in 2000 had ultimately come down to just over 500 votes in Florida, with a razor-thin Electoral College margin of 271 to 266. By contrast, Donald Trump lost in 2020 by more than 70 electoral votes. His nationwide popular-vote deficit of seven million represented a 5 percent gap—not even close. Trump would have needed tens of thousands more votes across at least three different states
