As states continue to tally final votes around the country, it appears Hillary Clinton will become the fifth U.S. presidential candidate to win the popular vote but lose the White House.
As of 10:27 a.m. E.T., Clinton clinched 59,325,126 votes nationally to Donald Trump’s 59,157,483 votes — a margin of 167,643 votes. That’s 47.7 percent to 47.5 percent of the popular vote.
Democratic strongholds California and Washington, as well as Clinton-projected Oregon and Colorado, could significantly increase her popular vote margin once they’ve been fully counted.
If the trend holds up, the narrow margin won’t be enough to change the results, but it will add to the unpredictable nature of this already-historic election. Clinton could win the popular vote by more than 1 percent, a wider margin that Al Gore’s in 2000.
In 2000, Gore narrowly took the popular vote, despite losing the presidency to George W. Bush by five electoral votes. The results of the election were fiercely contested, resulting in a 36-day recount battle in Florida.
Unlike in 2000, this year’s electoral vote was not as close for Clinton and Trump — he took 279 to her 218.
The popular and electoral vote have been split only three other times, all more than 125 years ago. The losers of those elections were Andrew Jackson in 1824, Samuel Tilden in 1876 and Grover Cleveland in 1888. Jackson went on to win in 1828, and Cleveland, the only president to serve two, nonconsecutive terms, was re-elected in 1892.
Though it’s rare, candidates can win the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. When people cast their votes, they are actually voting for electors, who then cast their votes for president based on the state’s popular vote.
Each state is allotted a different number of electors based on its representation in Congress. With 55 electors, California has the largest share.
More from U.S. News
Donald Trump Wins Presidency in Jolting Upset of Hillary Clinton
A Glass Ceiling Doesn’t Shatter After All
Donald Trump: ‘It Is Time for Us to Come Together’
Hillary Clinton Likely Wins Popular Vote, But Loses Electoral College and the Election originally appeared on usnews.com
