Clinton now leads Trump with over 2M popular votes

intern

November 24, 2016 11:14 AM

Hillary Clinton’s national popular vote lead over President-elect Donald Trump has now exceeded two million votes.

Hillary Clinton (right) and Donald Trump shake hands at the end of the second presidential debate in St. Louis, on October 9, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s margin in the popular vote against President-elect Donald Trump has surpassed two million, furthering the record for a candidate who lost in the Electoral College.

Hillary Clinton’s national popular vote lead over President-elect Donald Trump has now exceeded two million votes, according to an ongoing count by the Cook Political Report on Wednesday.

Clinton’s vote total is 64,223,986 (48.1 per cent of the vote), while Trump’s is 62,206,395 (46.6 per cent), a difference of 2,017,591 votes.

Clinton’s margin in the popular vote against Trump’s as additional votes have been counted in the presidential election, furthered the record for a candidate who lost in the Electoral College.

Much of that lead was generated by California, where Clinton had 3.7 million more votes than Trump in the last totals reported in the state on Tuesday evening.

The Democratic vote was not distributed well enough across the country, however, Trump carried most of the states and prevailed in the Electoral College.

It is the fifth time the winner of the popular vote has lost the election.

The same thing happened in 2000, when then Democratic nominee Al Gore won the popular vote by nearly 544,000 but lost to former president George W. Bush on electoral votes.

This year, Clinton scored large tallies in states like California but Mr Trump won most of the so-called swing states, which ultimately decide the outcome of elections.

The Electoral College system favours candidates who win by a small margin in lots of states over ones that win by a landslide in just a few.

A group of academics, lawyers and data experts are also trying to persuade the Clinton’s team to join their efforts to investigate the results in three states to check if there was foreign computer hacking that manipulated the outcome.

They are curious on why Clinton performed worse in counties that relied on electronic voting machines compared to paper ballots and optical scanners.

The Green Party’s Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein, is also raising funds to request a recount in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all won by Trump.

Some Democrats have called for an end to the Electoral College but the U.S. Constitution authorised it and smaller states would likely block its abolition.

Trump, who once called Electoral College a “disaster”, said a popular vote-only system would force candidates to campaign only in bigger states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York.

“I think the popular vote would have been easier in a true sense because you would go to a few places.

“I think that’s the genius of the Electoral College. I was never a fan of the Electoral College until now,” Trump told The New York Times on Tuesday.

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