In
the recently concluded U.S Presidential election, Trump won the
electoral college votes, defeating Clinton in major states, while
Clinton won the popular votes, amassing over 2 million votes than her
rival.
There's a possibility, though slim, that Trump won't be president
if electors in the elctoral college vote decide to vote against the
victor and vote against their states' results.
Read the interesting article by CNN.com after the cut.
The 538 members of the Electoral College are set on Monday to make President-elect Donald Trump's victory official.
In
all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia, electors -- chosen
by the state parties of the candidate who carried their state, Trump or
Hillary Clinton -- will meet to cast their ballots. The gatherings will
remove the last bit of drama from 2016's unprecedented election season
-- and post-election efforts to persuade Republican electors to vote
against Trump, in some cases in violation of state laws requiring
electors to support the victor.
Heightening
the tension in recent weeks: Clinton actually won the popular vote by
about 3 million -- making Trump the worst-performing winner in the
popular vote since 1876.
Trump's victory is not, as he has
described it, a landslide. He is expected to garner just 56.9% of the
electoral vote, assuming all electors vote according to their states'
results. That will give Trump the 44th-largest share of the electoral
vote out of 54 presidential elections since the modern system started in
1804.
It's a better performance, though, than President George W. Bush's razor-tight victory in 2000 and slightly larger win in 2004.
Bush,
too, lost the popular vote -- but Trump lost by a larger margin. He
will become the worst-performing president in the popular vote relative
to his closest rival aside from Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and John
Quincy Adams in 1824, an election that featured four candidates and was
decided by the House of Representatives.
Clinton won 48.2% of the vote to Trump's 46.2% -- a lead of more than 2.8 million votes and more than 2% as of Friday, with that lead expected to grow as the final ballots are tallied.
There's no national meeting of the Electoral College. Instead, electors gather in each state -- usually in the Capitol.
Under
federal law, though, electors must gather on December 19. And each
elector must sign six copies certifying their votes for president and
vice president.
Two ballots go to
the National Archives. One goes to the president of the Senate. Two go
to their state's chief elections officer. And one goes to a local judge.
After Monday's votes, there is still one last step: On January 6, Congress has to officially count the electoral votes. Vice President Joe Biden will preside over the count.
Lawmakers
can technically object -- in writing, with objections signed by at
least one House and one Senate member -- to individual electoral votes
or entire states' results. If the House and Senate support that
objection, the vote or votes in question are thrown out. But that has
never happened.
After the votes are counted, the results are final, and Trump is officially set for his inauguration at noon on January 20.
Source: CNN
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