Social media posts after the presidential election were abuzz about the disparity in the vote tally from 2020 to 2024.

Preliminary counts show President-elect Donald Trump with almost as many votes as he got in 2020, when he came up short in his reelection effort against Joe Biden. Trump appears to have 73.3 million votes now; in 2020, he won 74.2 million.

But Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have won about 12 million fewer votes than Biden did against Trump in 2020. Biden won 81.2 million votes in 2020; Harris so far has 69 million votes.

This prompted many on the left to claim that “Trump cheated,” while some on the right insisted the results prove that the 2020 election really was rigged. Harris’ vote total this time, they note, was in line with the totals for Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

There is no reason to think a decline in Democrats’ voter turnout should raise a red flag, said Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation.

“Turnout of voters can vary greatly from........

© The Daily Signal