As ballots continue to be counted in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton continues to widen the gap in terms of the popular vote.
As of now she has received over 1.5 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump nationwide.
Trump won the election in a spectacular fashion, but his presidency will be marred by the fact that it is the biggest loss for a winning candidate in terms of the popular vote.
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Hillary Clinton has by far the biggest popular victory in terms of numbers for a candidate who was defeated.
Middle East Eye reports:
By Friday afternoon, Clinton had amassed 63,049,607 votes in the 8 November contest, compared with Trump’s 61,610,484, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s tracker. The former secretary of state’s lead has been consistently climbing since Trump’s victory.
The figures are not final. Calculating the popular vote entails adding up final tallies from all the states and territories, which organise their own elections. But Clinton’s margin in the popular vote, which exceeds 1 percentage point, is unprecedented for a losing candidate in modern history and is expected to grow as more results from big Democratic-leaning states come in.
Hillary’s popular vote count now exceeds Trump’s by over ONE MILLION. No, this does not mean she won. It means that Trump HAS NO MANDATE.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) 15 November 2016
US presidential election is not decided by the total amount of votes, but by electoral college votes that are awarded by individual states.
The current system gives swing states, which are typically mid-sized, a disproportionate weight in the elections. It also plays down the relevance of votes in states that lean Republican or Democrat.
Traditionally, the electoral college count amplifies the result of the popular vote. For example, President Barack Obama received almost 5 million more votes than his 2014 opponent Mitt Romney – about 4 percent of the total. But the president overwhelmingly won the electoral college, 332 to 206.
But there have been exceptions dating back to 1825. Previous to Trump, four US presidents had clinched the presidency without winning the popular vote.
Most recently, Democratic candidate Al Gore received 543,816 votes more than George W Bush. But the Republican candidate went on to win the election after reaching the required 270 electoral colleges, following a controversial victory in a close Florida election.
Besides Trump and Bush, the list of presidents who lost the popular vote includes John Quincy Adams, Ruther B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison.
Coincidently, Trump, Bush, Hayes and Harrison are all Republicans, while Adams predates the two-party system the US has today.
Andrew Jackson, Adams’ opponent in the 1828 presidential election, had the biggest ratio in popular vote advantage for a losing candidate – more than 10 percentage points. However, Clinton has by far the biggest popular victory in terms of numbers for a candidate who was defeated.
While many Americans, including Trump himself, have criticised the electoral college system, changing the way the US chooses a president would require amending the constitution – a lengthy process that requires the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers, including those from states that may benefit from the current system.
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 7 November 2012
In last week’s election, Trump won where it mattered most, defeating Clinton in almost all the major swing states that determined the outcome of the election.
He narrowly carried Florida, as well as the Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Trump garnered 93 electoral college votes from the four states, where his margin of victory adds up to about 650,000 votes collectively. In California, Clinton beat Trump by more than 3 million votes, but she only won 55 electoral college votes from the state.
Commentators have used the discrepancy between the popular vote and the election outcome to make a point about a different argument.
For example, the Atlantic’s Andrew McGill argued that the Democratic candidate’s growing lead in the nationwide count proves that Clinton did not fail in exciting the liberal and progressive base – a popular theory among party critics. Others made the argument that the Midwest, known as the Rust Belt for its industrial past, cost Clinton the election because of her support for trade deals that hurt American workers.
What is indisputable, however, is that Trump won according to the rules of the game, even if some consider the system archaic and unfair.
Edmondo Burr
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110% pure bullshit ………..with over 3 million confirmed and verified illegally cast votes in over 5 states and the fact a large percentage of over seas active military never received their ballots Hillary did not win the popular vote
yeah, and votes from the graves …
the popular vote does not change the fact that this woman is a witch who should now be sitting in jail. All those people voting for, and supporting Clinton must be totally deluded. I mean 63,049,607 people actually voted for this criminal to be their president? How bad does it need to get before people wake up? Although on the other hand if all they do is listen to the MSM, that would indeed explain why they would want to vote for her, her crimes have been brushed over by them.
If you are counting popular vote, don’t forget to deduct 3million illegal voters & 4 million dead people votes from the non ID states
I have read that Hillary, and her PAC’s raised $1.1 Billion for her run, of which she spent $ 897,000,000. Since she only got 63 Million votes, how about she give the rest of what she raised ($203 million) to a charity to be named by our new President Mr. Donald Trump!
Proof that Donald Trump won the popular vote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtel3Yl5l8