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Trump lauds Electoral College as Clinton wins popular vote

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Hillary Clinton waves to the audience after addressing Children's Defense Fund's Beat the Odds celebration at the Newseum in Washington, Wednesday.

WASHINGTON >> After losing the popular vote, President-elect Donald Trump has decided that the Electoral College is a pretty smart way to elect a president after all.

Despite losing the election, Democrat Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote by more than 1 million votes as she runs up big leads in the biggest, bluest states.

Democrats have used Clinton’s lead in the popular vote to downplay any mandate Trump might claim.

Trump has shot back, tweeting Wednesday: “If the election were based on total popular vote I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily.”

With more than 130 million votes counted, Clinton leads Trump by more than 1 million votes. The Associated Press estimates there are more than 4 million votes left to be counted. The bulk of those votes are in California, so Clinton’s lead is likely to grow substantially.

If Clinton continues to receive more than 60 percent of the vote in California, her lead could grow to more than 2 million votes.

Most states count votes after Election Day. Often they are absentee ballots that arrive in the final days before Election Day. Some states, like California, count absentee votes that arrive after the election, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Trump won the vote that counts, in the Electoral College. Trump has 290 Electoral College votes and Clinton has 232, with Michigan still undecided. It takes 270 votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency.

Trump leads Clinton in Michigan by about 13,000 votes, according to the Michigan Department of State. That’s less than one-half of 1 percent of the total votes cast. The state has until Nov. 28 to make the results official.

Trump would be the first Republican to win Michigan in a presidential election since George H.W. Bush won the state in 1988.

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.

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.

In the past, Trump has been critical of the Electoral College. In 2012, he tweeted, “The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy.”

Trump revised that assessment after this year’s election. This week he tweeted, “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

35 responses to “Trump lauds Electoral College as Clinton wins popular vote”

  1. cojef says:

    Assuming the uncounted votes being mostly absentee ballots associated with the older generation the vote count may favor Trump?

  2. MoiLee says:

    ……is it safe to say that President Trump now has Won, with 306 total Electoral votes?….290 plus 16 for Michigan’s electoral votes ?Wow!
    An even Bigger Shocker…… or was it a”Landslide”? So the electoral votes actually benefited Donald Trump,after saying it was a “Disaster” in 2012.

    I don’t think it would have made any difference for President Trump to campaign more in California and New York ,since they are soooooo far to the Left! Ultimately,it’s irrelevant because of the massive number of Illegals immigrants and Sanctuary cities ,to put any energy in those states.
    However Florida’s Pan Handle was the clincher because they have more conservatives! And why Trump campaigned there repeatedly ,this proved to be a Good move for President Trump! And it paid off!

    • Keonigohan says:

      Losers always want to change the rules to see how they can slant the playing field toward their direction.
      President Elect Trump until January 20, 2017 then it’s PRESIDENT D.J. TRUMP & VP Mike PENCE & Republican CONGRESS #MAGA wooohoooo!
      NOW we can get things done along with DRAINING THE SWAMP!
      To the forthcoming loser posts commentors… #SuckItUpButtercups

      • MillionMonkeys says:

        He’s not going to “drain the swamp” or any of his meaningless campaign promises.

        He only ran to feed his swollen ego, lied and said ridiculous things just to impress the undereducated. So that’s what we got now.

        • Keonigohan says:

          and DJT WON in a LANDSLIDE! You guys took another SHELLACKING! ALL GOP GOVT!
          Libs….SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP!

      • Eradication says:

        There will be no excuses for the failure that is sure to happen in the next four years. Early indications already show that SNAFU is alive and well in this so called administration. People in his administration have already been demoted and/or fired before taking office. DT’s SIL has already stabbed Christi in the back for doing his job convicting his father. DT was suppose to meet with the Japan PM and nobody is ready for the meeting and the state department, you know the ones who are suppose to be involved with foreign dignitary visits, was not even contacted. Get ready America, it’s going to be an interesting 4 years.

        • DeltaDag says:

          President-elect Obama took his time to select his staff as well, so nothing new there. As for the what is going on with prospective Trump appointees right now, exactly what would you prefer? That Trump’s transition team make its choices in a mad rush and without any consideration? Or, that he commit to appointments well before he needs to simply to pacify disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters?

          Trump has shortcomings, weaknesses and flaws like any other politician that came before him. I say give him a chance to prove himself instead of espousing doom and gloom.

  3. fiveo says:

    Trump needs to be very careful and security around him needs to very tight. He would be wise not to depend on the Secret Service for his safety.
    The electoral college has yet to officially vote and this will not happen until Dec 19.
    If something was to happen to Trump before then it is unclear what would happen and it may be possible that the electors would vote for Hillary or would Vice President elect
    Mike Pence be selected by the electors as President. I do not know.

  4. nuuanusam says:

    The electoral system, at this moment, is the better system for the country. Without it, the smaller states, including Hawaii, will probably be neglected.

    • DeltaDag says:

      That is completely true. Without the Electoral College in place, our president could easily end up being the President of California, New York and Florida – not of the U.S.A.

      Another indication of its value is the fact, as yet untested, that the Electoral College was also established to provide a last chance to prevent the election of a popular – but despotic – candidate. Electors are not legally bound to follow the will of their state’s voters, and indeed throughout history a few electors have chosen to vote their conscience (but not to any meaningful effect).

      So for die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters, yes, there yet remains an exceedingly remote possibility she could still be elected President of the United States. It would simply take enough electors to convince themselves that Donald Trump is Hitler or Joseph Stalin reborn.

    • Kapaho says:

      Trump always changing his tune about what he said previously.But he was right about the elections being rigged, must be why he won.

      • DeltaDag says:

        Hillary Clinton and the DNC aren’t obligated to simply roll over if reasonable suspicion exists that election fraud on a massive scale lost her the presidency. Except for a minuscule number of far-out fringe Democrats, there haven’t been many serious allegations such a crime occurred. Lots and lots of unhappy Clinton supporters are out there it’s true, but mostly these are folks who either don’t understand the election process or don’t care to accept a legitimate outcome. As in all things, you can’t please everybody all of the time.

    • keaukaha says:

      Come on with only four votes we are as significant as a pimple on an elephants as-.The outrage in California is that their 55 votes didn’t matter and Floridas 29 did. Only an idi-t would say that it is a fair way to decide a presidential election. What the the president elect and his cocky supporters should realize that God forbid should a uprising occur they are seriously outnumbered. My comment is mostly for people like blue eyed devil who proudly proclaim to be racists.

  5. MillionMonkeys says:

    Hypocrite. He should contest the results and resign because he’s so sure the election was “rigged.” Or was he lying before the election?

  6. HRS134 says:

    I wonder how the numbers would look if they took out all of the votes cast by deceased persons as well as illegal aliens.

  7. bluemountain says:

    I’m confused. Where is this Electoral College? How does this system operate?

  8. CEI says:

    It didn’t have to be this way. Bernie Sanders being relatively scandal free would have beaten Trump handily. Instead the DNC forced a deeply flawed Waldo Clinton down the throats of the electorate. I’ll bet they regret that. Now Trump is going to take over for Barry Hussein and clean up his many screw-ups. In addition he will get to appoint conservative supreme court justices which is huuuuge!. He has a very capable VP in Mike Pence so assuming no major scandals republicans should be a force well into the 2020’s and beyond. Too bad for progressive busybodies. Now all they can do is whine and feel sorry for themselves.

    • awahana says:

      Regret? Hardly.

      Hillary is blaming the FBI and everyone but herself and her scandals and home email server. Yes, Bernie would have beaten Trump, so this is bachi karma for the DNC. We had to choose between two candidates with mental illnesses, both narcissistic.


      So instead of building a tower [as Trump did] Hillary built a political empire and fought to impose her view of reality on the country in a political way.”

      Clinton channeled her ambition to the very boomer idea of doing good and changing the world. At the same time, she displayed another boomer trait: the self-righteous idea that she knows better than anyone else.

      In his early years “he thought of himself as an Elvis kind of guy,” says D’Antonio. “He thought he had Elvis’ charisma. Just look at the hair. All the preening and the sneering and the idea he is so magnetic — all of it comes from Elvis. Even his female indulgence and marriages– it’s all break-the-rules baby boomer stuff.”

      While they’re both ambitious, Trump “hates losing” and lacks emotional control, Sherman says. “I see them both as high in narcissistic tendencies. What’s unique about Trump is how off the charts he is” when it comes to narcissistic traits, Sherman adds.


      http://fortune.com/2016/11/05/president-baby-boomer-narcissistic-trump-clinton/

  9. retire says:

    Let me preface this joke by saying that I didn’t vote for Clinton or Trump.

    Hello, my name is Forest, Forest Trump!

  10. keaukaha says:

    Actually it is not the Electoral College that decides who is going to be our president. It is our time zones that do. Presidential candidates concentrate on the east coast and mid USA states because their polls close earlier and counted first. If the votes were counted from the west coast first then Hilliary would be POTUS. Just a thought but I’m sure that the Chump and his advisors are very aware that there are more voters nationwide that don’t like him than those who do.

  11. Ronin006 says:

    Clinton may have won more popular votes than Trump; however, more people voted against her than voted for her. How is that for an unscientific analysis?

  12. keonimay says:

    Too many people, highly underestimated POTUS Trump. He only plays, any game, to win. The news media polls, for the primary & general elections, predicted his loss.

    Too many people, played politics as usual and always. That will never happen again. He recognized the strategic value, of the Electoral College, and not the Popular Vote.

    That is why, he is a highly successful billionaire businessman. And for that matter, so are all of the other successful billionaires and millionaires.

    His opposition is constantly speculating wrongly, about who he is, and what he will do. Listen to what he says and what he does. What he does, is what you should be worrying about, if you think he is the Great Satan.

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