This could be some consolation for Hillary Clinton: the majority of Americans actually wanted her to be president. In fact, more American voters picked her ahead of Donald Trump with roughly 98% of all the results collated. It would take a dramatic turn for Trump to overtake Clinton.
Associated Press collation of results shows that Clinton, the Democratic candidate, has so far polled 59,814,018 popular votes while Donald Trump, the Republican flag bearer, scored 59,611,678.
This represents a margin of about 200,000 votes which would have given Clinton the edge were it not for the US “indirect” electoral system which determines the winner by the electoral college and not the popular vote.
Trump has won 279 electoral votes, while Clinton had 228 – and these are the figures that really matter.
Three states are yet to complete vote reporting, but Trump is leading in Arizona and Michigan and Clinton is in control in New Hampshire.
This is purely mathematical: Trump crossed the magical 270 delegate vote count on election night.
After Mitt Romney lost in 2012, Trump had tweeted: “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.”
He just turned out to be the biggest beneficiary of the “disaster” since 2000.
California, with 55 electoral votes, has the highest number. Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming each has three votes – the lowest. DC is also entitled to three delegate votes.
All American states, except Maine and Nebraska, pledge their electoral votes to the candidates who won the popular votes there.
Data analysis by TheCable suggests that Clinton failed mainly because of the outcomes in Florida and Pennsylvania, two states with a combined figure of 49 electoral votes.
If she had won the popular votes in those states – as President Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012 – she would have been the president-elect. She would have gained 49 votes and hit the magical 270 figure.
In Pennsylvania, she scored 2,844,705 while Trump got 2,912,941 – a difference of less than 100,000 votes. That meant 20 delegate votes out of her hands.
The Florida margin was slightly wider: she scored 4,485,745 to Trump’s 4,605,515. That was 29 delegates lost.
The final results were not yet in at the time of this report, but the total popular vote tally should favour Clinton as absentee votes trickle in.
No comments