Πρώτη σε ψήφους η Χίλαρι, πρόεδρος ο Τραμπ! -Εχει πάρει 235.000 περισσότερες ψήφους
Πηγή: Πρώτη σε ψήφους η Χίλαρι, πρόεδρος ο Τραμπ! -Εχει πάρει 235.000 περισσότερες ψήφους | iefimerida.gr
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Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine on Wednesday claimed a consolation prize of sorts for his running mate, declaring that Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote in the 2016 race — a historical achievement, even if she fell short in her quest to become the first female president of the United States.
"She has made history in a nation that is good at so many things but that has made it uniquely difficult for a woman to be elected to federal office," Kaine said in an emotional introduction of his running mate before her formal concession speech. "She became the first major party nominee as a woman to be president and last night, won the popular vote of Americans."
The former secretary of state took a punch to the gut when Donald Trump clinched the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, but she and Trump were neck-and-neck in the popular vote, with each grabbing roughly 58.7 million votes. But by mid-day — more than nine hours after the race was called for Trump — Clinton held a lead of more than 180,000 votes.
It may take a while before the final vote tally is clear — election officials will be counting absentee ballots for weeks, potentially keeping the popular vote as too-close-to-call for the foreseeable future.
And while such a win could provide some solace to Clinton, it could also further divide a country already badly splintered after perhaps the most vicious presidential campaign in modern history by offering her die-hard supporters an avenue to contest the legitimacy of a Trump presidency.
Should the former secretary of state end up besting Trump, it would provoke flashbacks to the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Bush won the presidency that year by virtue of a narrow, 537-vote win in the state of Florida, one of a handful of states that also delivered Trump to victory on Wednesday morning. Bush's victory in Florida, and in the 2000 election overall, came only after a protracted, weeks-long legal battle that ended with a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in his favor. But while Bush's Florida win put him in the White House, it was Gore who won the popular vote, besting the president by 540,000 votes.
While the Bush-Gore election of 2000 is the only modern instance of a split between the Electoral College and the popular vote, such a situation happened two other times in U.S. history, both in the 1800s. Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Rutherford B. Hayes both won the electoral vote despite earning fewer overall votes than their opponents in the 1888 and 1876 elections, respectively. In 1824, John Quincy Adams won neither the electoral vote nor the popular vote, losing both to Andrew Jackson. But Jackson failed to reach the 131 electoral votes needed at the time to win the presidency, to the decision went to the House of Representatives, which elected Adams.
A popular vote win for Clinton would largely serve as a footnote to her historic run. The former secretary of state led Democrats to a trouncing, dashing hopes that the party could retake the Senate and potentially even the House. Instead, Republicans will have control of the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time in a decade.