Donald Trump Wins Popular Vote in 2016 Election-Reported as Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
President-elect Donald Trump won the Electoral College and the popular vote despite claims that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and still lost the election.
The Truth:
Hillary Clinton was leading in the popular vote by 630,877 votes as of November 13, but there were still millions of uncounted ballots that hadn’t been counted.
At last count there were about 7 million uncounted ballots, mostly in states that Clinton carried by wide margins, so it seems unlikely that Donald Trump would close on Clinton’s popular vote margin of victory.
Even so, Donald Trump gained 290 electoral votes (270 are needed) by winning key swing states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Clinton, meanwhile, won 228 electoral votes but opened up a popular vote lead with overwhelming support in non-swing states like California, where she held a 28-point lead over Trump
As of November 14th, Clinton led Trump in the popular vote by 60,350,241 to 60,981,118, a margin of about 630,877 votes, the Associated Press reports. However, millions of votes across the country hadn’t yet been added to the final tally.
The Los Angeles Times reported on November 10th that there were more than 4 million ballots in California, which would likely add to Clinton’s popular vote lead:
The official total — 4,362,087 ballots — will undoubtedly change and possibly even grow over the next few days. Three counties, including vote-rich San Diego County, did not submit an estimate of unprocessed ballots for Thursday night’s statewide report.
In addition, California law says that any ballot postmarked by election day can still be counted if it arrives as many as three business days late. State officials have extended this year’s deadline to Monday, because that third day, Nov. 11, is a federal holiday.
More than 1 million of the pending ballots — almost one of every four — remain to be sorted and counted in Los Angeles County. Three-fourths of the ballots statewide were cast absentee, with the rest being provisional ballots cast on election day by voters whose registration information could not be quickly verified.
The Atlantic reported on November 13th that there were about 7 million uncounted provisional and absentee ballots, mostly in California, Washington and New York:
State officials are still counting millions of provisional and absentee ballots, and within two weeks, Clinton will likely have another few million votes in the bank.
Most were cast in the Clinton-leaning states of California, Washington, and New York—not swing states—so they won’t change the Electoral College. But there’s a sufficient amount to put her within striking distance of Obama’s 2012 turnout, and help put an end to the argument that she simply didn’t work hard enough.
“We probably have about 7 million votes left to count,” said David Wasserman, an editor at Cook Political Report who is tracking turnout. “A majority of them are on the coasts, in New York, California, and Washington. She should be able to win those votes, probably 2-1.” By mid-December, when the Electoral College officially casts its ballots, Wasserman estimates that Clinton could be ahead by 2 percentage points in the popular vote.
Clinton’s likely popular vote victory led to a Change.org petition for the Electoral College to cast electoral ballots for Clinton on December 19th. The petition, which had about 4.3 million signatures, states:
On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots. If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine – which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay!
We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton. Why?
Mr. Trump is unfit to serve. His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic.
Secretary Clinton WON THE POPULAR VOTE and should be President.
Hillary won the popular vote. 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?
In the wake of the petition, rumors began circulating that the Trump had actually wont the popular vote but mainstream media withheld final tallies to make it appear Trump lost the popular vote to stir controversy. We didn’t find any evidence to support that claim.