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Clinton on pace to win popular vote, despite losing election

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greeted supporters after speaking at the New Yorker Hotel in New York, today, where she conceded her defeat to Republican Donald Trump after the hard-fought presidential election.

WASHINGTON » Despite losing Tuesday’s presidential election, Hillary Clinton appears to be on pace to win the popular vote, an ironic twist in an election in which her opponent repeatedly said the system was rigged against him.

Just two days before Election Day, Republican businessman Donald Trump tweeted: “The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy.”

As it turns out, without the Electoral College, Trump probably wouldn’t be the president-elect.

A day after Election Day, Clinton held a narrow lead in the popular vote, according to unofficial results tallied by The Associated Press. With nearly 125 million votes counted, Clinton had 47.7 percent of the vote and Trump had 47.5 percent.

That’s a lead of about 236,000 votes.

Many states count votes after Election Day, so Clinton isn’t guaranteed to keep her lead. However, most of the outstanding votes appear to be in Democratic-leaning states, making it very likely she will become the second Democratic candidate for president this century to win the popular vote but lose the presidency.

The biggest chunk of uncounted votes is in California. Washington State, New York, Oregon and Maryland also have large numbers of uncounted votes. Clinton won all those states, and if the trends continue, she will pad her lead by more than 1 million votes.

There are also votes to be counted in Arizona and Alaska, two Republican-leaning states. But they are far outnumbered by uncounted votes in Democratic states.

Under the Electoral College system, each state gets one vote for each member of Congress representing the state. California has the most, with 55. Seven states have only three. The District of Columbia has three, even though the nation’s capital has no vote in Congress.

It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. Trump’s total stands at 279, with races in Michigan, New Hampshire and Arizona too close to call.

There have been occasional calls to scrap the Electoral College, with no success. The latest push came after the 2000 presidential election, in which Democrat Al Gore lost to Republican George W. Bush, despite winning the popular vote.

Any calls to scrap the Electoral College aren’t likely to go anywhere this time, either, with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate.

Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidate for vice president, praised Clinton on today for winning the popular vote.

But when Clinton made her concession speech, she didn’t mention it.

24 responses to “Clinton on pace to win popular vote, despite losing election”

  1. BigIsandLava says:

    It’s like the Bula`ia phenomenon: Bula`ia and Trump-everytime they opened their mouths it was hilarious and they both have their hair thingy going for them. Bula`ia for Governor

    • thos says:

      It is on this basis one can be assured that the lunatic left will try to do to Trump what they succeeded in doing in late 2000: they use any excuse to challenge the legitimacy of the election and continue beating that drum until his approval numbers are so far south, the path to victory will be assured for them in the next election.

      For Trump this was just the prelim.

      The main card is now underway and it won’t be any puny fifteen rounds either.

      Like the Mafia they so closely resemble, the Democrat Party, that worships power as the unvarying way, may lose a battle now and again but for them the war never ends. You can bet your bottom dollar the DNC already has spooled up a war room with maps, comms, big data, and computer equipment galore as they plot the various ways they can bring Trump down in preparation for [1] the off year shot across the bow in 2018 and [2] the main broadside volleys in 2020.

      Fortunately for decent Americans, Trump loves the sting of battle.

      So Donald, don’t spit out your mouthpiece just yet or unlace your gloves. Make sure your corner cut man has plenty of adrenalin swabs for the wounds you are about to suffer in the slug fest now being planned by the Democrat Party: they have not yet BEGUN to fight.

      • Pocho says:

        lol, no free tuition for the protesters, no safe zone’s, no sanctuary cities, less freebies! Go to work, if you can’t afford college go find a part-time job like many of us do, if you got time to protest why don’t you go find a JOB! And if there’s no part-time job to be had, IT’s ALL on your pied piper BARRACK Obama!

        • Pocho says:

          just think of all the government money thrown at Sacnctuary Cities that could help you college students tuition! Want happen to Kennedy’s mantra, Ask not what the Country can do for you – ask what you can do for the Country.

        • bumbye says:

          Tuition? I wanna go to Trump University!!

  2. Tempmanoa says:

    I thought it would be the other way around– I thought Trump would win the popular vote, but lose the electoral vote to Hillary’s larger states with bigger votes.

    • AhiPoke says:

      Actually if you look at where democrats normally win its the larger states and by a larger margin, probably due to large inner city populations. Due to this its not uncommon for them to win the popular vote.

    • MillionMonkeys says:

      That’s what the polls suggested, that Trump would get more popular votes but Clinton would get the electoral votes anyway.

      I wonder if whoever put out the poll information was trying to paint a rosy picture for Clinton, which then made her would-be voters complacent. Just wondering…

      • cajaybird says:

        After 40 plus years of illegals entering the U.S, having babies (all U.S. Citizens), obtaining driver;s licenses (the ID required to vote), we have millions and millions of Democratic votes, the exact reason why the Federal government allows it to continue. How many thousands of illegals do you believe Hawaii can absorb?

      • cajaybird says:

        If you look at a map of the U.S., with the counties highlighted in red who voted as a majority for Trump, and Blue for those who voted as a majority for Hilary, you’ll see that most of the U.S. is red, and the Blue counties are basically the large cities, LA, San Fran, Chicago, Miami, NY, etc. The electoral college is designed so that the country has more equal representation, other wise, a few cities would be dictating the policies for the whole U.S. Cities such as LA, have grown exponentially due to illegals; it’s not a controlled growth.

  3. den says:

    funny, all these people that dissed Trump including republicans are now kissing his okole.

    • amela says:

      Kissing okole is not the word it’s keeping America United! Time to move on and work for everyone. Can’t be a poor loser.

      • den says:

        talk about poor losers, there was this black guy blaming the white “racist” vote for showing up and getting Trump elected. how does he think Obama got elected, it was all the black votes that
        showed up.

        • AhiPoke says:

          While I’m sure there was some effect of a racist vote, I agree, this was more about Obama’s failed leadership and policies and Clinton’s lack of honesty. I also agree that Obama was elected because he is black not in spite of it. He won on hype not on abilities and accomplishments. Winning more than 90% of the black vote is proof of that.

      • MillionMonkeys says:

        Yes, amela, let’s make the best of the situation, let’s KEEP America great. Or at least pretty good….

  4. Keonigohan says:

    “Close but No Cigar”

  5. Keolu says:

    But the electoral college is how the election is decided. Game over.

  6. Kaneohe5 says:

    Who cares. Couple big states. She can keep cali

  7. WalkoffBalk says:

    Electoral College is like winning by who had more first downs then who scored the most points.

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