Tag Archives: popular vote

Is Hillary Clinton the U.S. President-Elect?

On this Saturday morning, three days since Hillary Clinton conceded the presidential election:

  • Clinton has a counted vote lead in the nationwide popular vote of about 400,000. That does not matter because, of course, we choose presidents by electors.
  • Each State determines its electors, however, based on the popular vote in the State.
  • Based on current popular vote totals translated into electors, Donald Trump has 290 electoral votes—20 more than the total needed to become president—and Clinton has 228.
  • Two States, Michigan (16 electoral votes) and New Hampshire (4 electoral votes), have not been decided—those vote counts are ongoing.

So how close to completed, or not, are the popular vote counts in States, and especially in the States that are apparently very close and definitely are/will be decisive?

For example, in Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), awarded to Trump by the media and color-coded maps we’ve all seen, Trump leads by about 69,000 votes out of about 5.8 million cast.  Have all Pennsylvania votes in fact been counted?  If not, will they be?  If so (and if when), is the margin so close that we—Clinton, yes, and also Trump, and also all of the people in the United States—have an interest to recount, to be sure we know who the voters chose?

And also Wisconsin.  Its 10 electoral votes also have been awarded to Trump.  The reported vote margin in Wisconsin is about 27,000 votes, out of more than 2.8 million votes counted.  Have all the Wisconsin votes been counted?  And is the race so close that they should be recounted?

If a majority of voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, she is President-elect, even if New Hampshire voters chose Trump.  Or she should be.

Shouldn’t we figure that out?

Why aren’t people asking these questions?