Sanders calls for assessment of Electoral College

Clinton eventually acknowledged her loss and called Trump – but only after her campaign chief, John Podesta, at 2 a.m. “The victor, by far, of the popular vote is the most qualified candidate for president in more than a generation”. Clinton begame the fifth presidential nominee in USA history to win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College.

“Many people have asked about Michigan’s process for counting ballots and certifying election results”.

Trump won the election on November 8 by earning 306 electoral votes nationwide, compared to Clinton’s 232 electoral votes. The electoral college will cast votes on December 19. Clinton hasn’t indicated that she will.

If the defectors go ahead with their plan on 19 December, it will be the most “faithless electors” since 1808, when six declined to vote for James Madison.

Stein has also said she would file for vote recounts in MI and Pennsylvania. Groups of activists have urged Clinton to challenge the vote with evidence to suggest swing state votes had been manipulated.

While the Clinton camp has been strangely silent, Green party candidate Jill Stein has raised enough money, close to $1.3 million, in order to get recounts in the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

US presidential elections are essentially individual elections in each of the 50 states and the national capital city, Washington, with the victor in each state getting all of its votes in the Electoral College. “We need to have post-election ballot audits”. With the newly added votes, Clinton has now exceeded the popular vote percentages of seven candidates who ascended the presidency.

However, Boxer’s long-shot bid is not expected to clear the current GOP-controlled Congress and those electors’ effort is also unlikely to succeed – even if it did, the House of Representatives could simply choose to elect Trump. And, remember, only a constitutional amendment can abolish the Electoral College. “Republicans have requested – I think the governor of North Carolina right now is thinking about doing a recount. Campaigning is much different!”

Many remember that in Florida in 2000 when George W. Bush lost the popular vote by about 540,000 votes to Al Gore, but won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.