Final tally: Clinton popular-vote edge nears 2.9M

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump, giving her the largest popular-vote margin of any losing presidential candidate.

Certified results in all 50 s t ate s and t he Di s t r i c t of Columbia show Clinton winning nearly 65,844,610 votes — 48 percent — to Trump’s 62,979,636 votes, or 46 percent.

Clinton is the fifth presidential candidate in American history to win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College. Democrat Al Gore, the only other presidential candidate this century to come up short in the Electoral College but claim a popular-vote victory, received 540,000 more votes than President George W. Bush.

The vote total discrepancy between Democratic nominee Clinton and Trump has fueled arguments by some Democrats that the election process i s undemocratic, and there was an intense, but unsuccessful, lobbying push to convince electors to cast their votes against Trump.

T h e Re p u b l i c a n p r e s i - dent-elect won all but two of the Electoral College votes he claimed on Election Day when electors met in state capitals Monday.

Wi t h a l l s t a t e s v o t i n g , Trump finished with 304 electoral votes, and Clinton had 227.

To be elected president, the winner must get at least half plus one — or 270 electoral votes. Most states give all their elec toral votes to whichever candidate wins that state’s popular vote. Maine and Nebraska award them by congressional district.

A joint session of Congress is scheduled for Jan. 6 to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate. Once the result is certified, the winner will be sworn in Jan. 20.