Narrow Wins In These Key States Powered Biden To The Presidency

In a contest with historic turnout, President-elect Joe Biden topped President Trump by nearly 7 million votes, and 74 votes in the Electoral College, but his victory really was stitched together with narrow margins in a handful of states.

Trump's legal team has mounted dubious and so-far-unsuccessful efforts to overturn the results in six key states Biden won. All six of those states have now certified their results, providing an opportunity to look back at the final tallies.

The graphic below shows the results in those six swing states, illustrating the especially close margins in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin.

The tight races in the trio of states had a big electoral impact. As NPR's Domenico Montanaro has put it, "just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College."

Of course, Trump is no stranger to narrow victories. He won the 2016 election thanks to just under 80,000 combined votes in three of those six key states.

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