UPDATE 12/11 10:55 a.m. ET: More than one month after the November 8 presidential elections, Hillary Clinton’s popular vote count continues to go up, now at 65,746,544, with President-elect Donald Trump’s votes totaling 62,904,682. This marks a more than 400,000-vote increase in Clinton’s popular vote count, giving her a lead ahead of Trump by 2.83 million votes.
UPDATE 12/5 10:55 a.m. ET: Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote has continued to grow unwaveringly since Election Day. According to the latest figures by the Cook Political Report, Clinton has 65,316,724 votes, while Donald Trump has 62,719,568, giving the former secretary of state a lead of nearly 2.6 million votes.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein initiated a Wisconsin recount in late November after she raised millions of dollars to have votes counted again the state. Clinton’s campaign announced on November 26 that it would participate in the recount, stating that it planned to “take the same approach” in Michigan and Pennsylvania as Stein pursued additional recounts. Trump called the effort “a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded.” On December 3, Stein wrote on Twitter that she plans to “escalate” the Pennsylvania recount through a federal lawsuit, hours after she stated that she’d drop the request.
Original story below:
The votes are still being counted, but the result is undeniable: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election by a staggering number.
On Friday, November 18, the latest numbers from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report showed that Democratic candidate Clinton has a lead of 1.43 million votes over Trump. With a margin of 1.1 percent over the real estate mogul, the former Secretary of State has 63,049,607 votes to the Republican candidate’s 61,610,484.
In a historic upset, the former reality TV star was declared president-elect in the early hours of November 9 when Trump secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim the presidency.
Now, more than a week after the election, Trump’s Electoral College number is 306, with Clinton’s at 232, according to The Wall Street Journal. Although it’s certain that the outspoken Republican will remain over the magic number of 270, he could still possibly lose a state, such as Michigan, where the Cook County Political Report has Clinton behind by about 11,600 votes. (The state’s 83 counties have until November 22 to certify their election results.)
More than 4.4 million people have signed a change.org petition calling on the Electors of the Electoral College to ignore their states’ vote and cast their ballots for Clinton, who at this stage has won the popular vote by a larger number of ballots than anyone in history who did not go on to be inaugurated as president, according to The Nation.
It’s the fourth time in U.S. history that a nominee has won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College. Most recently, in 2000, Democrat Al Gore beat Republican George W. Bush by 543,816 votes nationally, but Bush (after an infamous recount in Florida and a Supreme Court ruling) won the Electoral College and was inaugurated president.
In 1824 John Quincy Adams lost both the popular vote and Electoral College to Andrew Jackson. But because Jackson failed to win the required number of Electoral College votes — 131 — a vote was put to the House of Representatives, and Adams won and was inaugurated as president.
In 1888, Republican Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote to Democrat Grover Cleveland by more than 90,000 votes, but won 233 Electoral College votes to Cleveland’s 168 and became president.
Retiring Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California filed legislation on Tuesday, November 15, to abolish the Electoral College in light of the election results.
“In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote,” Boxer said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.”
There are still 4 million votes to be counted in California and Utah. Clinton is ahead by more than 3.25 million votes in the Golden State, and some pundits are predicting that her popular vote lead could inch closer to two million.
Meanwhile, Trump leads his opponent by 178,000 votes in Utah.
And with counting continuing in Washington, Clinton is winning by more than 500,000 votes.
