Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in popular vote passes 2.5 million

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-popular-vote-lead-25-million-a7451661.html

Harriet Agerholm
Dec. 2, 2016

Hillary Clinton has received more than 2.5 million more votes than Donald Trump in the Presidential election, making her lead over her rival greater than 10 previous US Presidents.

The former Secretary of State lost the electoral college and conceded her 232 electoral votes – distributed in different numbers per state – to Mr Trump’s final tally of 306 votes.

Yet the Democrat has accrued 65,250,000 total votes so far, compared to the President-elect’s 62,686,000 — meaning at least 2,564,000 more Americans voted for her.

The Democrat's lead has been swelling thanks to late counting of mail in and absentee votes in states including California, New York and Washington.

As ballots continued to be counted on Thursday, 46.2 per cent of the electorate had voted for Mr Trump, while 48.1 per cent opted for Ms Clintons— figures that have caused critics to complain the voting system is undemocratic.

Despite polling failing to forecast the bombastic property tycoon's win, Ms Clinton’s 1.9 per cent lead puts her on track to secure the popular vote pollsters predicted in the days before the election.

Her lead is five times that of Al Gore’s advantage over George W Bush in the contentious 2000 Presidential election.

•••••

He is also the first US President ever who lost earned less than 50 per cent of the vote in both primary and general elections, which undercuts post election claims from the Trump camp that the President-elect has a mandate to push through his campaign pledges.

•••••

Although the billionaire property tycoon has won more votes than any previous Republican nominee, the 2016 election also set a record for the most votes cast for candidates other than the eventual President.

•••••