Presidential Election Popular Vote Has Hillary Clinton Ahead By 1.7 Million

The presidential election popular vote is still being tallied two weeks post-election, and it shows that Hillary Clinton has won by quite a few votes. While initial polls showed Clinton and President-elect Donald Trump neck and neck with less than 200,000 votes separating them in the popular vote, it turns out that Clinton was voted for by 1.7 million more people than Trump, even though he won the presidency.

The way in which the United States elects a president is a bit complicated for many people. A candidate is declared the winner when they reach 270 electoral votes. Each state has a certain number of electoral colleges and depending on how the state votes, those electoral votes add up. For example, the state of California was won by Hillary Clinton, giving her 55 electoral votes. The state of Texas was won by Donald Trump, giving him 38. Rather than the president being elected by the individual voters, polls are pooled together, if you will, and states are then colored red (for Republican) or blue (for Democrat).

For the record, Donald Trump received 290 electoral college votes compared to Hillary Clinton’s 232.

The presidential election popular vote tallies the individual votes — each time that a person colors in a name on a ballot. For many years, people all over the country have felt as though the president should be chosen based on the number of votes that he or she receives, not the number of electoral colleges he or she wins.

When Barack Obama became president, several Republicans demanded that the electoral college system be done away with. Now that Donald Trump has won, Democrats are suggesting the same thing. Of course, many are trying to have something done about it retroactively so that Hillary Clinton could win. And as much as millions of people would love for that to happen, it’s not going to. Simple as that.

According to the Independent, the number of votes for Hillary Clinton is historical.

“With the last remaining ballots being counted, Mrs Clinton so far has 63.6 million votes compared to 61.9 million for her Republican rival – meaning she has received more votes than any other US presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama. The Democrat has received 48 per cent of votes counted so far compared to Mr Trump’s 46.7 per cent.”

The presidential election popular vote would have seen Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States if that was how the process worked. However, Donald Trump has said that he would have done things differently if the electoral colleges weren’t in play — and (surprise, surprise) he thinks he still would have won the 2016 election.

“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. The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different,” Trump tweeted recently.

The presidential election popular vote results have caused an uproar amongst millions of unhappy voters. In fact, over 4.5 million people have signed a petition “calling on the delegates that each state sends to vote in the Electoral College to defy the instructions given to them by the electorate in their state,” according to the Independent.

“Secretary Clinton won the popular vote and should be President. The only reason Trump ‘won’ is because of the Electoral College. But the Electoral College can actually give the White House to either candidate. So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?”

Do you think that the presidential election popular vote should ultimately determine who becomes president of the United States?

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]