What were the official vote counts and margins in the 2020 election in key battleground states?

1. What counts as a “battleground” — and which states mattered in 2020

Battleground or swing states are those that could plausibly go to either party and that campaigns target because narrow margins there decide the Electoral College; common lists for 2020 included Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and certain congressional districts such as Maine’s 2nd and Nebraska’s 2nd ^[1]. Analysts call a state a battleground when recent elections show split outcomes or persistently small margins; Cook Political Report and Wikipedia-style overviews list the same cluster of states as decisive in 2020 ^{[2] [1]}.

2. National anchor vs. state margins — the contrast that mattered

Joe Biden won the national popular vote by roughly four percentage points in 2020, but his results in many battleground states lagged that national advantage. For instance, analysts note Biden underperformed his national figure in Arizona (-1.8), Georgia (-1.8), Michigan (-0.7), Nevada (-1.3), Pennsylvania (-1.5) and Wisconsin (-1.9), and Pennsylvania in particular was the tipping-point state and was won by about a 1-point margin ^{[2] [1]}. That divergence — a comfortable national margin but small state-by-state margins — explains why campaign attention concentrated on a relatively short list of competitive states ^[2].

3. Narrow margins triggered recounts and legal scrutiny

Because several battlegrounds were decided by small counts, recount rules and thresholds mattered. Reuters reported that Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania at one stage was about 28,833 votes (roughly 0.5 percentage point) and that Pennsylvania law triggers an automatic recount at or below 0.5% — a procedural detail that shaped post‑Election Day dynamics ^[3]. Ballotpedia’s reference material on recount thresholds underscores that states have differing margins that prompt automatic or requested recounts ^[4].

4. How counting practices and laws shaped public attention

Counting timelines and voting rules influenced when and how margins changed: states that processed absentee and mail ballots differently reported late shifts in totals. NBC News contemporaneous coverage emphasized that five battleground states (Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada) were “too early or too close to call” while counts continued, which concentrated media and political attention on evolving margins in those states ^[5]. The Brennan Center’s analysis further links state voting rules (for example, mail ballot deadlines) to why some states continued counting after Election Day ^[6].

5. Polling vs. the actual returns — expectations and surprises

Pre‑election polling averages showed tightening or swings in several battlegrounds; Statista’s polling-chart coverage (via RealClearPolitics averages) highlighted that states like Texas and Florida were competitive in polls even if they behaved differently on Election Day ^[7]. Post-election analysis by Cook Political Report emphasized that the map shifted compared with past Democrats’ performances, with Biden carrying some states by less than his national share — a reminder that polls and national totals don’t automatically translate into wide state-level margins ^[2].

6. What the supplied sources do not provide — and why that matters

The search results supplied here do not include an authoritative list of official vote counts and final margins for each battleground state (for example, certified vote totals by state or county), so I cannot report exact vote tallies or precise final margins beyond the examples cited in these articles (not found in current reporting). For exact certified totals you would need state election websites, the official certified canvass documents, or consolidated databases (not provided in the current set of sources).

7. Bottom line for readers

The 2020 election was decided on narrow margins in a handful of battleground states even while Biden had a comfortable national popular‑vote lead; these small state margins invited recount rules, legal scrutiny and intense post‑Election Day coverage ^{[1] [3] [2]}. If you want the certified vote totals and precise margins for each key battleground state, those specific official numbers are not present in the provided sources and should be fetched from state election authorities or comprehensive post‑election databases.