document_title: United States presidential election, 2016

question_text: who won the popular vote for president in 2016

question_tokens: who won the popular vote for president in 2016

text: United States presidential election, 2016

text: Background

text: Article Two of the United States Constitution provides that the President and Vice President of the United States must be natural-born citizens of the United States, at least 35 years old, and residents of the United States for a period of at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the political parties, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Traditionally, the primary elections are indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.

text: President Barack Obama, a Democrat and former U.S. Senator from Illinois, was ineligible to seek reelection to a third term due to the restrictions of the Twenty-second Amendment; in accordance with Section 1 of the Twentieth Amendment, his term expired at noon on January 20, 2017.

text: Primary process

text: The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses took place between February and June 2016, staggered among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. This nominating process was also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who in turn elected their party's presidential nominee.

text: Speculation about the 2016 campaign began almost immediately following the 2012 campaign, with New York magazine declaring the race had begun in an article published on November 8, two days after the 2012 election.[28] On the same day, Politico released an article predicting the 2016 general election would be between Clinton and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, while a New York Times article named New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey as potential candidates.[29][30]

text: Nominations

text: Republican Party

text:
This article is part of
a series about
Donald Trump

President of the United States
Incumbent
Presidency

Transition
Inauguration
Timeline
Executive actions

proclamations

Polls
Protests
Trips

international

Appointments

Cabinet

formation

Ambassadors
Federal judges

Neil Gorsuch
Supreme Court candidates

U.S. Attorneys
Dismissals

Sally Yates
Michael Flynn
James Comey
Rex Tillerson

Policy positions

Economy

tariffs

Environment

Paris withdrawal

Foreign policy

as candidate
as President

Immigration
Social issues

cannabis

show
Presidential election

2016 campaign

2020
2000

Rallies
Primaries
Convention
Endorsements
Debates
Never Trump movement
Sexual misconduct allegations

show
Russia controversies

Business projects in Russia
Election interference

timeline

Steele dossier
Classified information disclosure
Links of associates with Russian officials
Trump campaign–Russian meetings
Special Counsel investigation

2017
2018

hide
Business and personal

Business career

The Trump Organization
The Apprentice

Books
Eponyms
Family
Foundation
Legal affairs

Stormy Daniels

Racial views
Residences
Social media

v
t
e

text: Primaries

text: With seventeen major candidates entering the race, starting with Ted Cruz on March 23, 2015, this was the largest presidential primary field for any political party in American history.[31]

text: Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016, Perry, Walker, Jindal, Graham, and Pataki withdrew due to low polling numbers. Despite leading many polls in Iowa, Trump came in second to Cruz, after which Huckabee, Paul and Santorum withdrew due to poor performances at the ballot box. Following a sizable victory for Trump in the New Hampshire primary, Christie, Fiorina and Gilmore abandoned the race. Bush followed suit after scoring fourth place to Trump, Rubio and Cruz in South Carolina. On March 1, 2016, the first of four "Super Tuesday" primaries, Rubio won his first contest in Minnesota, Cruz won Alaska, Oklahoma and his home of Texas and Trump won the other seven states that voted. Failing to gain traction, Carson suspended his campaign a few days later.[32] On March 15, 2016, the second "Super Tuesday", Kasich won his only contest in his home state of Ohio and Trump won five primaries including Florida. Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state.[33]

text: Between March 16 and May 3, 2016, only three candidates remained in the race: Trump, Cruz and Kasich. Cruz won the most delegates in four Western contests and in Wisconsin, keeping a credible path to denying Trump the nomination on first ballot with 1,237 delegates. Trump then augmented his lead by scoring landslide victories in New York and five Northeastern states in April, followed by a decisive victory in Indiana on May 3, 2016, securing all 57 of the state's delegates. Without any further chances of forcing a contested convention, both Cruz[34] and Kasich[35] suspended their campaigns. Trump remained the only active candidate and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on the evening of May 3, 2016.[36]

text: Nominees

text:
Republican Party ticket, 2016

Donald Trump
Mike Pence

for President
for Vice President

Chairman of
The Trump Organization
(1971–2017)
50th
Governor of Indiana
(2013–2017)

Campaign

[37][38][39]

text: Other major candidates

text: Major candidates were determined by the various media based on common consensus. The following were invited to sanctioned televised debates based on their poll ratings.

text: Trump received 14,010,177 total votes in the primary. Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich each won at least one primary, with Trump receiving the highest number of votes and Ted Cruz receiving the second highest.

text:
Candidates in this section are sorted by reverse date of withdrawal from the primaries

John Kasich
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Ben Carson
Jeb Bush
Jim Gilmore
Carly Fiorina
Chris Christie

69th
Governor of Ohio
(2011–present)
U.S. Senator
from Texas
(2013–present)
U.S. Senator
from Florida
(2011–present)
Dir. of Pediatric Neurosurgery,
Johns Hopkins Hospital
(1984–2013)
43rd
Governor of Florida
(1999–2007)
68th
Governor of Virginia
(1998–2002)
CEO of
Hewlett-Packard
(1999–2005)
55th
Governor of New Jersey
(2010–2018)

Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign

W: May 4
4,287,479 votes
W: May 3
7,811,110 votes
W: Mar 15
3,514,124 votes
W: Mar 4
857,009 votes
W: Feb 20
286,634 votes
W: Feb 12
18,364 votes
W: Feb 10
40,577 votes
W: Feb 10
57,634 votes

[40]
[41][42][43]
[44][45][46]
[47][48][49]
[50][51]
[52][53]
[54][55]
[56][57]

Rand Paul
Rick Santorum
Mike Huckabee
George Pataki
Lindsey Graham
Bobby Jindal
Scott Walker
Rick Perry

U.S. Senator
from Kentucky
(2011–present)
U.S. Senator
from Pennsylvania
(1995–2007)
44th
Governor of Arkansas
(1996–2007)
53rd
Governor of New York
(1995–2006)
U.S. Senator
from South Carolina
(2003–present)
55th
Governor of Louisiana
(2008–2016)
45th
Governor of Wisconsin
(2011–present)
47th
Governor of Texas
(2000–2015)

Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign

W: Feb 3
66,781 votes
W: Feb 3
16,622 votes
W: Feb 1
51,436 votes
W: December 29, 2015
2,036 votes
W: December 21, 2015
5,666 votes
W: November 17, 2015
222 votes
W: September 21, 2015
1 write-in vote in New Hampshire
W: September 11, 2015
1 write-in vote in New Hampshire

[58][59][60]
[61][62]
[63][64]
[65]
[66][67]
[68][69]
[70][71][72]
[72][73][74]

text: Vice presidential selection

text: Trump turned his attention towards selecting a running mate after he became the presumptive nominee on May 4, 2016.[75] In mid-June, Eli Stokols and Burgess Everett of Politico reported that the Trump campaign was considering New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich from Georgia, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.[76] A June 30 report from The Washington Post also included Senators Bob Corker from Tennessee, Richard Burr from North Carolina, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, Joni Ernst from Iowa, and Indiana Governor Mike Pence as individuals still being considered for the ticket.[77] Trump also stated that he was considering two military generals for the position, including retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.[78]

text: In July 2016, it was reported that Trump had narrowed his list of possible running mates down to three: Christie, Gingrich, and Pence.[79]

text: On July 14, 2016, several major media outlets reported that Trump had selected Pence as his running mate. Trump confirmed these reports in a message on Twitter on July 15, 2016, and formally made the announcement the following day in New York.[80][81] On July 19, the second night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, Pence won the Republican vice presidential nomination by acclamation.[82]

text: Democratic Party

text:
This article is part of a series
about
Hillary Clinton

Political positions
Electoral history

Clinton Foundation

State Department controversy

Onward Together

U.S. Secretary of State

Tenure
Obama's foreign policy
QDDR
Email controversy
Hillary Doctrine

Campaign for the presidency

2016

Primaries
Convention

Endorsements

political
non-political

Campaign for the presidency

2008

Primaries
Endorsements

U.S. Senator from New York

Tenure
2000 election
2006 re-election

First Lady of the United States

Role
Health care plan
SCHIP
Whitewater and other investigations
Response to Lewinsky scandal

Awards and honors
Books

v
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text: Primaries

text: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also served in the U.S. Senate and was the First Lady of the United States, became the first woman to formally launch a major candidacy for the presidency. Clinton made the announcement on April 12, 2015, via a video message.[83] While nationwide opinion polls in 2015 indicated that Clinton was the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, she faced extreme challenges from Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont,[84] who became the second major candidate when he formally announced on April 30, 2015, that he was running for the Democratic nomination.[85] September 2015 polling numbers indicated a narrowing gap between Clinton and Sanders.[84][86][87] On May 30, 2015, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley was the third major candidate to enter the Democratic primary race,[88] followed by former Independent Governor and Republican Senator of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee on June 3, 2015,[89][90] former Virginia Senator Jim Webb on July 2, 2015,[91] and former Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig on September 6, 2015.[92]

text: On October 20, 2015, Webb announced his withdrawal from the Democratic primaries, and explored a potential Independent run.[93] The next day Vice-President Joe Biden decided not to run, ending months of speculation, stating, "While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent."[94][95] On October 23, Chafee withdrew, stating that he hoped for "an end to the endless wars and the beginning of a new era for the United States and humanity".[96] On November 2, after failing to qualify for the second DNC-sanctioned debate after adoption of a rule change negated polls which before might have necessitated his inclusion in the debate, Lessig withdrew as well, narrowing the field to Clinton, O'Malley, and Sanders.[97]

text: On February 1, 2016, in an extremely close contest, Clinton won the Iowa caucuses by a margin of 0.2 points over Sanders. After winning no delegates in Iowa, O'Malley withdrew from the presidential race that day. On February 9, Sanders bounced back to win the New Hampshire primary with 60% of the vote. In the remaining two February contests, Clinton won the Nevada caucuses with 53% of the vote and scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary with 73% of the vote.[98][99] On March 1, 11 states participated in the first of four "Super Tuesday" primaries. Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia and 504 pledged delegates, while Sanders won Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont and 340 delegates. The following weekend, Sanders won victories in Kansas, Nebraska and Maine with 15–30-point margins, while Clinton won the Louisiana primary with 71% of the vote. On March 8, despite never having a lead in the Michigan primary, Sanders won by a small margin of 1.5 points and outperforming polls by over 19 points, while Clinton won 83% of the vote in Mississippi.[100] On March 15, the second "Super Tuesday", Clinton won in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Between March 22 and April 9, Sanders won six caucuses in Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the Wisconsin primary, while Clinton won the Arizona primary. On April 19, Clinton won the New York primary with 58% of the vote. On April 26, in the third "Super Tuesday" dubbed the "Acela primary", she won contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, while Sanders won in Rhode Island. Over the course of May, Sanders accomplished another surprise win in the Indiana primary[101] and also won in West Virginia and Oregon, while Clinton won the Guam caucus and Kentucky primary.

text: On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, 2016, the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including pledged delegates and superdelegates, to secure the nomination, becoming the first woman to ever clinch the presidential nomination of a major United States political party.[102] On June 7, Clinton secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning primaries in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, while Sanders only won in Montana and North Dakota. Clinton also won the final primary in the District of Columbia on June 14. At the conclusion of the primary process, Clinton had won 2,204 pledged delegates (54% of the total) awarded by the primary elections and caucuses, while Sanders had won 1,847 (46%). Out of the 714 unpledged delegates or "superdelegates" who were set to vote in the convention in July, Clinton received endorsements from 560 (78%), while Sanders received 47 (7%).[103]

text: Although Sanders had not formally dropped out of the race, he announced on June 16, 2016, that his main goal in the coming months would be to work with Clinton to defeat Trump in the general election.[104] On July 8, appointees from the Clinton campaign, the Sanders campaign, and the Democratic National Committee negotiated a draft of the party's platform.[105] On July 12, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton at a rally in New Hampshire in which he appeared with her.[106]

text: Nominees

text:
Democratic Party ticket, 2016

Hillary Clinton
Tim Kaine

for President
for Vice President

67th
U.S. Secretary of State
(2009–2013)
U.S. Senator
from Virginia
(2013–present)

Campaign

[107][108][109]

text: Other major candidates

text: The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks and cable news channels, or were listed in publicly published national polls. Lessig was invited to one forum, but withdrew when rules were changed which prevented him from participating in officially sanctioned debates.

text: Clinton received 16,849,779 votes in the primary.

text:
Candidates in this section are sorted by date of withdrawal from the primaries

Bernie Sanders
Martin O'Malley
Lawrence Lessig
Lincoln Chafee
Jim Webb

U.S. Senator from Vermont (2007–present)
61st
Governor of Maryland
(2007–2015)
Harvard Law professor
(2009–2016)
74th
Governor of Rhode Island
(2011–2015)
U.S. Senator
from Virginia
(2007–2013)

Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign

LN: July 26, 2016
13,167,848 votes
W: February 1, 2016
110,423 votes
W: November 2, 2015
4 write-in votes in New Hampshire
W: October 23, 2015
0 votes
W: October 20, 2015
2 write-in votes in New Hampshire

[110]
[111][112]
[97]
[113]
[114]

text: Vice presidential selection

text: In April 2016, the Clinton campaign began to compile a list of 15 to 20 individuals to vet for the position of running mate, even though Sanders continued to challenge Clinton in the Democratic primaries.[115] In mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton's shortlist included Representative Xavier Becerra from California, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey, Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro from Texas, Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti from California, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, Labor Secretary Tom Perez from Maryland, Representative Tim Ryan from Ohio, and Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts.[116] Subsequent reports stated that Clinton was also considering Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, retired Admiral James Stavridis, and Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado.[117] In discussing her potential vice presidential choice, Clinton stated that the most important attribute she looked for was the ability and experience to immediately step into the role of president.[117]

text: On July 22, Clinton announced that she had chosen Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia as her running mate.[118] The delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which took place July 25–28, formally nominated the Democratic ticket.

text: Third parties and independents

text: Third party and independent candidates that have obtained more than 100,000 votes nationally and one percent of the vote in at least one state, are listed separately.

text: Libertarian Party

text: Gary Johnson, 29th Governor of New Mexico. Vice-presidential nominee: Bill Weld, 68th Governor of Massachusetts

text:
This article is part of a series
about
Gary Johnson

Political positions

Governor of New Mexico

1994 election
1998 re-election

Campaign for the Presidency

2012

2012 Libertarian Convention

Campaign for the Presidency

2016

2016 Libertarian Convention
Primaries
Campaign endorsements

Our America Initiative

v
t
e

text:
This article is part of a series
about
Bill Weld

Political ideology
Libertarian Party

Vice presidential nomination

Convention
Primaries
Election 2016

New York gubernatorial campaign

U.S. Senate campaign

Governor of Massachusetts

1990 election
1994 re-election

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts

v
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text: Ballot access to all 538 electoral votes

text: Nominees

text:
Libertarian Party ticket, 2016

Gary Johnson
William Weld

for President
for Vice President

29th
Governor of New Mexico
(1995–2003)
68th
Governor of Massachusetts
(1991–1997)

Campaign

[119][120]

text: Green Party

text: Jill Stein, physician from Lexington, Massachusetts. Vice-presidential nominee: Ajamu Baraka, activist from Washington, DC

text:
This article is part of a series
about
Jill Stein

Political positions
Green New Deal

Campaign for the Presidency

2016

Convention
Primaries
Campaign endorsements
Election recounts

Campaign for the Presidency

2012

Convention
Primaries

Political Parties

Green-Rainbow Party
Green Party of the United States

Career
Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2010

v
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text: Ballot access to 480 electoral votes (522 with write-in):[121] – map

text:
As write-in: Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina[122][123]
Ballot access lawsuit pending: Oklahoma[124]
No ballot access: Nevada, South Dakota[122][125]

text: Nominees

text:
Green Party ticket, 2016

Jill Stein
Ajamu Baraka

for President
for Vice President

Physician
from Lexington, Massachusetts
Activist
from Washington, DC

Campaign

[126][127]

text: Independents

text: Evan McMullin, chief policy director for the House Republican Conference. Vice-presidential nominee: Mindy Finn, president of Empowered Women.

text: Ballot access to 84 electoral votes (451 with write-in):[128] – map

text:
As write-in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin[128][129][130][131][132][133][134]
No ballot access: District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming

text: In some states, Evan McMullin's running mate was listed as Nathan Johnson on the ballot rather than Mindy Finn, although Nathan Johnson was intended to only be a placeholder until an actual running mate was chosen.[135]

text:
Independent ticket, 2016

Evan McMullin
Mindy Finn

for President
for Vice President

Chief policy director for the
House Republican Conference (2015–2016)
President of
Empowered Women
(2015–present)

Campaign

[136]

text: Constitution Party

text: Darrell Castle, attorney from Memphis, Tennessee. Vice-presidential nominee: Scott Bradley, businessman from Utah

text: Ballot access to 207 electoral votes (451 with write-in):[137][138] – map

text:
As write-in: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia[137][139][140][141][142]
No ballot access: California, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma[137]

text: Nominees

text:
Constitution Party ticket, 2016

Darrell Castle
Scott Bradley

for President
for Vice President

Attorney
from Memphis, Tennessee
Businessman
from Utah

Campaign

[143]

text: Other nominations

text:
Party
Presidential nominee
Vice presidential nominee
Attainable Electors
(write-in)
Popular Vote
States with ballot access
(write-in)

American Delta Party
Reform Party
Rocky De La Fuente
Businessman from California
Michael Steinberg
Lawyer from Florida
147
(305)
map
33,133
(0.02%)
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming[138][144][145][146][147][148][149]
(Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia)[129][130][131][133][139][141][150][151][152][153][154][155][142][156][157]

Party for Socialism and Liberation
Peace and Freedom[158]
Liberty Union Party[159]

Gloria La Riva
Newspaper printer and activist from California
Eugene Puryear
Activist from Washington, DC
112
(226)
map
74,402
(0.05%)
California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington[160][161]
(Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia)[130][131][133][141][150][151][155][157][162]

Socialist Workers Party
Alyson Kennedy
Mineworker and Labor Leader from Illinois
Osborne Hart
of Pennsylvania
70
(123)
map
12,465
(0.01%)
Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah, Washington[160]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Workers World Party
Monica Moorehead
perennial candidate and political activist from Alabama[163]
Lamont Lilly
of North Carolina[164]
30
(235)
map
4,319
(0.00%)
New Jersey, Utah, Wisconsin[160]
(Alabama, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New, York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia)[131][133][150][152][156][157][165][166][167][168][169][170]

Socialist Party USA
Natural Law Party[171]

Mimi Soltysik
former National Co-Chair of the Socialist Party USA from California[172]
Campaign
Angela Nicole Walker
of Wisconsin
25
(209)
map
2,704
(0.00%)
Colorado, Michigan, Guam[160][161][173]
(Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin)[133][141][150][152][155][156][162][168][170][174][175]

Prohibition Party
James Hedges
former Tax Assessor for Thompson Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania[176][177]
Bill Bayes
of Mississippi[176]
21
(116)
map
5,617
(0.00%)
Arkansas, Colorado, Mississippi[160]
(Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)[131][141][150][155][157][165][168]

Independent
Mike Smith
Lawyer, Colorado
Daniel White
20
(222)
9,345
(0.01%)
Colorado, Tennessee[160]
(Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington. West Virginia)[130][131][139][141][142][150][151][155][156][157][162][165][168][169][174][178][179]

Independent
Richard Duncan
Real Estate Agent from Ohio
Ricky Johnson
Preacher from Pennsylvania
18
(173)
24,307
(0.02%)
Ohio[180]
(Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)[141][150][151][152][154][155][157][161][162][165][168][178][179]

Independent
Laurence Kotlikoff
Economics Professor at Boston University, Massachusetts
Edward E. Leamer
Economics Professor at UCLA, California
17
(428)
map
3,596
(0.00%)
Colorado, Louisiana[160]
(Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)[129][130][132][134][139][141][142][150][152][155][156][157][161][162][165][166][167][168][169][170][174][175][178][179][181][182][183][184]

America's Party
Tom Hoefling
activist from Iowa[185]
Steve Schulin
of South Carolina
17
(369)
map
4,845
(0.00%)
Colorado, Louisiana[160][186]
(Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)[130][131][132][133][139][140][141][142][150][151][152][154][155][156][157][162][165][167][168][169][170][174][175][178][179][182][184]

Veterans Party of America
Chris Keniston
reliability engineer from Texas[187]
Deacon Taylor
of Nevada[188]
17
(196)
map
7,248
(0.01%)
Colorado, Louisiana[160]
(Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin)[133][142][150][154][155][156][162][165][169][175][178][179]

Legal Marijuana Now Party
Dan Vacek
of Minnesota
Mark Elworth Jr.
of Nebraska
16
(77)
13,537
(0.01%)
Iowa, Minnesota[160]
(Alabama, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Independent
Lynn Kahn
Doctor of Clinical Psychology from Maryland
Kathleen Monahan
of Florida
12
(160)
5,730
(0.00%)
Arkansas, Iowa[147][160]
(Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia)[131][133][141][150][151][154][155][156][157][162][165][168]

American Solidarity Party
Mike Maturen
sales professional and magician from Michigan
Juan Muñoz
of Texas
9
(332)
map
6,714
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin)[129][131][133][134][140][141][142][150][154][155][156][162][165][167][169][170][175][178][179]

Independent
Joseph Allen Maldonado
of Oklahoma
Douglas K. Terranova
9
(212)
961
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)[130][139][141][150][151][152][154][155][156][157][162][168][169][175][178][179][182]

Independent
Ryan Alan Scott
Bruce Kendall Barnard
9
(108)
749
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Delaware, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[133][150][151][155]

American Party (South Carolina)
Peter Skewes
Animal Science Professor at Clemson University, South Carolina
Michael Lacy
9
(83)
3,246
(0.00%)
South Carolina[190]
(Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[130][150][155]

Approval Voting Party
Frank Atwood
of Colorado
Blake Huber
of Colorado
9
(76)
337
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Independent American Party
Kyle Kenley Kopitke
of Michigan
Narthan R. Sorenson
9
(76)
1,096
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Nutrition Party
Rod Silva
restaurateur from New Jersey[191][192]
Richard Silva
9
(76)
751
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

United States Pacifist Party
Bradford Lyttle
peace activist from Illinois
Hannah Walsh
9
(76)
382
(0.00%)
Colorado[189]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Socialist Equality Party
Jerry White
peace activist from Michigan
Niles Niemuth
journalist from Wisconsin
8
(166)
481
(0.00%)
Louisiana[193]
(Alabama, California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)[129][141][150][151][155][157][162][179]

Independent
Princess Khadijah Jacob-Fambro
of California
Milton Fambro
of California
8
(75)
749
(0.00%)
Louisiana[193]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

Independent American Party
Rocky Giordani
from California
Farley Anderson
activist from Utah
6
(79)
2,752
(0.00%)
Utah[174]
(Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[131][150][155]

Constitution Party of Idaho
Scott Copeland
of Texas
J.R. Meyers
4
(71)
2,356
(0.00%)
Idaho[194]
(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)[150][155]

text: Candidates gallery

text:
Gary Johnson
Libertarian Party
(campaign)

Jill Stein
Green Party
(campaign)

Evan McMullin
Independent
(campaign)

Darrell Castle
Constitution Party
(campaign)

text: General election campaign

text: Hillary Clinton focused her candidacy on several themes, including raising middle class incomes, expanding women's rights, instituting campaign finance reform, and improving the Affordable Care Act. In March 2016, she laid out a detailed economic plan basing her economic philosophy on inclusive capitalism, which proposed a "clawback" which would rescind tax relief and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas; with provision of incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders; as well as increasing collective bargaining rights; and placing an "exit tax" on companies that move their headquarters out of America in order to pay a lower tax rate overseas.[195] Clinton promoted equal pay for equal work to address current alleged shortfalls in how much women are paid to do the same jobs men do,[196] promoted explicitly focus on family issues and support of universal preschool,[197] expressed support for the right to same-sex marriage,[197] and proposed allowing undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship stating that it "[i]s at its heart a family issue."[198]

text: Donald Trump's campaign drew heavily on his personal image, enhanced by his previous media exposure.[199] The primary slogan of the Trump campaign, extensively used on campaign merchandise, was Make America Great Again. The red baseball cap with the slogan emblazoned on the front became a symbol of the campaign, and has been frequently donned by Trump and his supporters.[200] Trump's right-wing populist positions—reported by The New Yorker to be nativist, protectionist, and semi-isolationist—differ in many ways from traditional conservatism.[201] He opposed many free trade deals and military interventionist policies that conservatives generally support, and opposed cuts in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Moreover, he has insisted that Washington is "broken" and can only be fixed by an outsider.[202][203][204] Trump support was high among working and middle-class white male voters with annual incomes of less than $50,000 and no college degree.[205] This group, particularly those with less than a high-school education, suffered a decline in their income in recent years.[206] According to The Washington Post, support for Trump is higher in areas with a higher mortality rate for middle-age white people.[207] A sample of interviews with more than 11,000 Republican-leaning respondents from August to December 2015 found that Trump at that time found his strongest support among Republicans in West Virginia, followed by New York, and then followed by six Southern states.[208]

text: Clinton had an uneasy, and at times adversarial relationship with the press throughout her life in public service.[209] Weeks before her official entry as a presidential candidate, Clinton attended a political press corps event, pledging to start fresh on what she described as a "complicated" relationship with political reporters.[210] Clinton was initially criticized by the press for avoiding taking their questions,[211][212] after which she provided more interviews.

text: In contrast, Trump benefited from free media more than any other candidate. From the beginning of his campaign through February 2016, Trump received almost $2 billion in free media attention, twice the amount that Clinton received.[213] According to data from the Tyndall Report, which tracks nightly news content, through February 2016, Trump alone accounted for more than a quarter of all 2016 election coverage on the evening newscasts of NBC, CBS and ABC, more than all the Democratic campaigns combined.[214][215][216] Observers noted Trump's ability to garner constant mainstream media coverage "almost at will".[217] However, Trump frequently criticized the media for writing what he alleged to be false stories about him[218] and he has called upon his supporters to be "the silent majority".[219] Trump also said the media "put false meaning into the words I say", and says he does not mind being criticized by the media as long as they are honest about it.[220][221]

text: Both Clinton and Trump were seen unfavorably by the general public, and their controversial nature set the tone of the campaign.[222]

text: Clinton's practice during her time as Secretary of State of using a private email address and server, in lieu of State Department servers, gained widespread public attention back in March 2015.[223] Concerns were raised about security and preservation of emails, and the possibility that laws may have been violated.[224] After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question fell into this so-called "born classified" category, an FBI probe was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server.[225][226][227][228] The FBI probe was concluded on July 5, 2016, with a recommendation of no charges, a recommendation that was followed by the Justice Department. On October 28, eleven days before the election, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that the FBI was analyzing additional emails obtained during its investigation of an unrelated case.[229][230] On November 6, he notified Congress that the new emails did not change the FBI's earlier conclusion.[231][232]

text: Also, on September 9, 2016, Clinton stated: "You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it."[233] Donald Trump criticized Clinton's remark as insulting his supporters.[234][235] The following day Clinton expressed regret for saying "half", while insisting that Trump had deplorably amplified "hateful views and voices".[236] Previously on August 25, 2016, Clinton gave a speech criticizing Trump's campaign for using "racist lies" and allowing the alt-right to gain prominence.[237]

text: On the other side, on October 7, 2016, video and accompanying audio were released by The Washington Post in which Trump referred obscenely to women in a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush while they were preparing to film an episode of Access Hollywood. The audio was met with a reaction of disbelief and disgust from the media.[238][239][240] Following the revelation, Trump's campaign issued an apology, stating that the video was of a private conversation from "many years ago".[241] The incident was condemned by numerous prominent Republicans like Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Jeb Bush[242] and the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.[243] By October 8 several dozen Republicans had called for Trump to withdraw from the campaign and let Pence head the ticket.[244] Trump insisted he would never drop out.[245]

text: The ongoing controversy of the election made third parties attract voters' attention. On March 3, 2016, Libertarian Gary Johnson addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington DC, touting himself as the third-party option for anti-Trump Republicans.[246][247] In early May, some commentators opined that Johnson was moderate enough to pull votes away from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump who were very disliked and polarizing.[248] Both conservative and liberal media noted that Johnson could get votes from "Never Trump" Republicans and disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters.[249] Johnson also began to get time on national television, being invited on ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and many other networks.[250] In September and October 2016, Johnson suffered a "string of damaging stumbles when he has fielded questions about foreign affairs."[251][252] On September 8, Johnson, when he appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe, was asked by panelist Mike Barnicle, "What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?" (referring to a war-torn city in Syria). Johnson responded, "And what is Aleppo?"[253] Johnson's "what is Aleppo?" question prompted widespread attention, much of it negative.[253][254] Later that day, Johnson said that he had "blanked" and that he did "understand the dynamics of the Syrian conflict – I talk about them every day."[254]

text: On the other hand, Green Party candidate Jill Stein stated that the Democratic and Republican parties are "two corporate parties" that have converged into one.[255] Concerned by the rise of the far right internationally and the tendency towards neoliberalism within the Democratic Party, she has said, "The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism."[256][257]

text: In response to Johnson's growing poll numbers, the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic allies increased their criticism of Johnson in September 2016, warning that "a vote for a third party is a vote for Donald Trump" and deploying Senator Bernie Sanders (Clinton's former primary rival, who supported her in the general election) to win over voters who might be considering voting for Johnson or for Stein.[258]

text: Ballot access

text:
Presidential ticket
Party
Ballot access
Votes[259][260]
Percentage

States
Electors
% of voters

Trump / Pence
Republican
50 + DC
538
100%
62,984,828
46.09%

Clinton / Kaine
Democratic
50 + DC
538
100%
65,853,514
48.18%

Johnson / Weld
Libertarian
50 + DC
538
100%
4,489,235
3.27%

Stein / Baraka
Green
44 + DC
480
89%
1,457,226
1.06%

McMullin / Finn
Independent
11
84
15%
732,273
0.53%

Castle / Bradley
Constitution
24
207
39%
203,091
0.15%

text:
Candidates in bold were on ballots representing 270 electoral votes, without needing write-in states.
All other candidates were on the ballots of fewer than 25 states, but had write-in access greater than 270.

text: Party conventions

text: July 25–28, 2016: Democratic National Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[261]

text: July 18–21, 2016: Republican National Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio.[262][263]

text: May 26–30, 2016: Libertarian National Convention was held in Orlando, Florida.[264][265]

text: August 4–7, 2016: Green National Convention was held in Houston, Texas.[266][267]

text: April 13–16, 2016: Constitution Party National Convention was held in Salt Lake City, Utah.[268]

text: Campaign finance

text: This is an overview of the money used in the campaign as it is reported to Federal Election Commission (FEC) and released in September 2016. Outside groups are independent expenditure only committees—also called PACs and SuperPACs. The sources of the numbers are the FEC and Center for Responsive Politics.[269] Some spending totals are not available, due to withdrawals before the FEC deadline. As of September 2016, ten candidates with ballot access have filed financial reports with the FEC.

text:
Candidate
Campaign committee (as of December 9)
Outside groups (as of December 9)
Total spent

Money raised
Money spent
Cash on hand
Debt
Money raised
Money spent
Cash on hand

Hillary Clinton[270][271]
$497,808,791
$435,367,811
$62,440,979
$111,238
$205,909,959
$204,267,754
$1,642,205
$639,635,565

Donald Trump[272][273]
$247,541,449
$231,546,996
$15,994,454
$2,086,572
$74,905,285
$70,941,922
$3,963,363
$302,488,918

Gary Johnson[274][275]
$11,410,313
$10,308,873
$1,101,440
$0
$1,386,554
$1,310,578
$75,976
$11,619,451

Rocky De La Fuente[276]
$7,351,270
$7,354,663
-$3,392
$7,334,250
$0
$0
$0
$7,354,663

Jill Stein[277][278]
$3,509,477
$3,451,174
$58,303
$87,740
$0
$0
$0
$3,451,174

Evan McMullin[279]
$1,644,102
$1,642,165
$1,937
$0
$0
$0
$0
$1,642,165

Darrell Castle[280]
$52,234
$51,365
$869
$2,500
$0
$0
$0
$51,365

Gloria La Riva[281]
$29,243
$24,207
$5,034
$0
$0
$0
$0
$24,207

Monica Moorehead[282]
$11,547
$9,127
$2,419
$4,500
$0
$0
$0
$9,127

Peter Skewes[283]
$7,966
$4,238
$7,454
$8,000
$0
$0
$0
$4,238

text: Newspaper endorsements

text: Clinton was endorsed by The New York Times,[284] the Los Angeles Times,[285] the Houston Chronicle,[286] the San Jose Mercury News,[287] the Chicago Sun-Times[288] and the New York Daily News[289] editorial boards. Trump, who has frequently criticized the mainstream media, was not endorsed by the vast majority of newspapers,[290][291] with the Las Vegas Review-Journal,[292] The Florida Times-Union,[293] and the tabloid National Enquirer his highest profile supporters.[294] Several papers which endorsed Clinton, such as the Houston Chronicle,[286] The Dallas Morning News,[295] The San Diego Union-Tribune,[296] The Columbus Dispatch[297] and The Arizona Republic,[298] endorsed their first Democratic candidate for many decades. USA Today, which had not endorsed any candidate since it was founded in 1982, broke tradition by giving an anti-endorsement against Trump, declaring him "unfit for the presidency".[299][300] The Atlantic, which has been in circulation since 1857, gave Clinton its third-ever endorsement (after Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson).[301]

text: Other traditionally Republican papers, including the New Hampshire Union Leader, which had endorsed the Republican nominee in every election for the last 100 years,[302] The Detroit News, which had not endorsed a non-Republican in its 143 years,[303] and the Chicago Tribune,[304] endorsed Gary Johnson.

text: Russian involvement

text: On December 9, 2016, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an assessment to lawmakers in the US Senate, stating that a Russian entity hacked the DNC and John Podesta's emails to assist Donald Trump. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed.[305] President Barack Obama ordered a "full enquiry" into such possible intervention.[306] Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper in early January 2017 testified before a Senate committee that Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking, and included disinformation and the dissemination of fake news, often promoted on social media.[307]

text: President-elect Trump originally called the report fabricated,[308] and Wikileaks denied any involvement by Russian authorities.[309] Days later, Trump said he could be convinced of the Russian hacking "if there is a unified presentation of evidence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies."[310]

text: Several U.S. senators—including Republicans John McCain, Richard Burr, and Lindsey Graham—demanded a congressional investigation.[311] The Senate Intelligence Committee announced the scope of their official inquiry on December 13, 2016, on a bipartisan basis; work began on January 24, 2017.[25]

text: Notable expressions, phrases, and statements

text:
Basket of deplorables – a controversial phrase coined by Hillary Clinton to describe Trump's supporters.
Birdie Sanders – after a campaign stop in Portland, Oregon, a white-winged two-barred crossbill landed on Sanders's podium while he was addressing a large crowd of supporters.[312] The event became popular with the Sanders community and Sanders even began to publicize the bird as "Birdie Sanders".[312]
Build that wall / Mexico will pay for the wall – Trump's campaign promise that if elected he will build a wall on the border between the US and Mexico, with Mexico financing the project.[313][314]
Drain the swamp – a phrase Donald Trump invoked late in the campaign to describe what needs to be done to fix problems in the federal government. Trump acknowledged that the phrase was suggested to him, and he was initially skeptical about using it.[315]
Fake news – stories that are untrue. Trump has used the expression to refer to stories he dislikes.[316][317]
Feel the Bern – a phrase chanted by supporters of the Bernie Sanders campaign which was officially adopted by his campaign.[318]
Grab them by the pussy – a remark made by Trump in a 2005 private conversation which was recorded by a hot mic and released during the campaign. By saying this remark, Trump intended to boast how as a celebrity he can do things (namely grab women by their genitalia) that non-celebrities cannot.
I'm with her – Clinton's unofficial campaign slogan ("Stronger Together" was the official slogan).[319]
Lock her up – a chant first used at the Republican convention to indicate that Hillary Clinton is guilty of a crime. The chant was later used at many Trump campaign rallies.[320]
Make America great again – Trump's campaign slogan.
Trump's use of derogatory nicknames to deride his opponents – these include "Crooked Hillary", "Little Marco", "Low energy Jeb", and "Lying Ted."
Small hands – Marco Rubio asserting that Trump has small hands, and implying that the size of his hands is proportional to the size of his penis.[321]
What is Aleppo? – uttered by Gary Johnson during an interview when questioned about the status of Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War.[322]
What the hell do you have to lose? - said by Trump to inner-city African Americans at rallies starting on August 19, 2018.[323][324]

text: Debates

text: Primary election debates

text: General election debates

text: The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a non-profit organization, hosted debates between qualifying presidential and vice-presidential candidates. According to the commission's website, to be eligible to opt to participate in the anticipated debates, "... in addition to being Constitutionally eligible, candidates must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College, and have a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recently publicly-reported results at the time of the determination."[325]

text: The three locations chosen to host the presidential debates, and the one location selected to host the vice presidential debate, were announced on September 23, 2015. The site of the first debate was originally designated as Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; however, due to rising costs and security concerns, the debate was moved to Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.[326]

text: On August 19, Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager confirmed that Trump would participate in a series of three debates.[327][328][329][330] Trump had complained two of the scheduled debates, one on September 26 and the other October 9, would have to compete for viewers with National Football League games, referencing the similar complaints made regarding the dates with low expected ratings during the Democratic Party presidential debates.[331]

text: The Free & Equal Elections Foundation announced plans to host an open debate among all presidential candidates who had ballot access sufficient to represent a majority of electoral votes.[332] In October 2016 Free & Equal extended the invitation to all candidates with ballot lines representing at least 15% of the electoral vote. The nominees of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Reform, and Socialism and Liberation parties, as well as independent candidate Evan McMullin, were invited to participate.[333] The debate was held at the University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium on October 25, 2016. It was moderated by Ed Asner and Christina Tobin, with Darrell Castle, Rocky De La Fuente, and Gloria La Riva participating.[334]

text: PBS hosted a debate moderated by Tavis Smiley between Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.[335]

text:
Debates among candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential election

No.
Date
Time
Host
City
Moderator(s)
Participants

P1
September 26, 2016
9 p.m. EDT
Hofstra University
Hempstead, New York
Lester Holt
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

VP
October 4, 2016
9 p.m. EDT
Longwood University
Farmville, Virginia
Elaine Quijano
Tim Kaine
Mike Pence

P2
October 9, 2016
8 p.m. CDT
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
Anderson Cooper
Martha Raddatz
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

P3
October 19, 2016
6 p.m. PDT
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Chris Wallace
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump

P4
October 25, 2016
7 p.m. MDT
University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Ed Asner
Christina Tobin
Darrell Castle
Rocky De La Fuente
Gloria La Riva

       = Sponsored by the CPD;        = Sponsored by Free & Equal

text: Results

text: The election was held on November 8, 2016. Clinton cast her vote in Chappaqua, Westchester County, New York, while Trump voted in a Manhattan public school.[336] Throughout the day, the election process went more smoothly than many had expected, with only a few reports of long lines and equipment problems.

text: The news media and election experts were surprised twice, at Trump's winning the GOP nomination and in winning the electoral college. English political scientist Lloyd Gruber says, "One of the major casualties of the 2016 election season has been the reputation of political science, a discipline whose practitioners had largely dismissed Donald Trump’s chances of gaining the Republican nomination."[337] The final polls showed a lead by Clinton—and indeed she did win more popular votes.[338] Trump himself expected to lose the election based on polling, and rented a small hotel ballroom to make a brief concession speech; "I said if we're going to lose I don't want a big ballroom", he said.[339] The Republican candidate performed surprisingly well in all battleground states, especially Florida, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. Even Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, states that had been predicted to vote Democratic, were won by Trump.[340] Cindy Adams, present at Trump Tower, reported that "Trumptown knew they'd won by 5:30. Math, calculations, candidate dislike causing voter abstention begat the numbers."[341] Trump said that he was surprised by how "that map was getting red as hell. That map was bleeding red ... I always used to believe in [polls]. I don't believe them anymore."[339]

text: On November 9, 2016, at 3:00 AM Eastern Time, Trump secured over 270 electoral votes, the majority of the 538 electors in the Electoral College, enough to make him the president-elect of the United States.[342][343]

text: According to the authors of Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, by late Tuesday night the White House had decided that Trump had won the election. Obama aide David Simas called Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook to unsuccessfully persuade Clinton to concede the election. Obama then called Clinton herself, citing the importance of continuity of government, to publicly acknowledge that Trump had won; believing that she was still unwilling to concede the president called Podesta, telling him that the election was over, but the call to Clinton had likely already persuaded her.[344] Clinton called Trump early on Wednesday morning to concede defeat,[345] and later that day asked her supporters to accept the result and hoped that Trump would be "a successful president for all Americans."[346] In his victory speech Trump appealed for unity saying "it is time for us to come together as one united people" and praised Clinton who was owed "a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country."[347]

text: Six states plus a portion of Maine that Obama won in 2012 switched to Trump. These are (with Electoral College votes in parentheses): Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Wisconsin (10), Iowa (6), and Maine's second congressional district (1). Initially, Trump won exactly 100 more Electoral College votes than Mitt Romney in 2012, with two lost to faithless electors the following month. Thirty-nine states swung more Republican compared to the previous Presidential election, while eleven states and the District of Columbia swung more Democratic.[260]

text: Based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates[1] of the voting age population (VAP), turnout of voters casting a vote for President was nearly 1% higher than 2012. Examining overall turnout in the 2016 election, University of Florida Prof. Michael McDonald estimated[348] that 138.8 million Americans cast a ballot in 2016. 65.9 million of those ballots have been counted for Clinton and just under 63 million for Trump, representing 20.3% (Clinton) and 19.4% (Trump) of a census estimate of U.S. population that day of 324 million.[260][349] Considering a VAP of 250.6 million people and voting eligible population (VEP) of 230.6 million people, this is a turnout rate of 55.4% VAP and 60.2% VEP.[1][348] Based on this estimate, voter turnout was up compared to 2012 (54.1% VAP) but down compared to 2008 (57.4% VAP). A FEC report of the 2016 Presidential General Election recorded an official total of 136.7 million votes cast for President — more than any prior election.[1]

text: Data scientist Azhar Hamdan, explained the paradoxes of the 2016 outcome compared Trump's 30 states against Clinton's 20 states and the District of Columbia, [350][351] saying "chief among them the discrepancy between the popular vote, which Hillary Clinton won by 2.8 million votes, and the electoral college, where Trump won 304-227". He said Trump outperformed Mitt Romney's 2012 results, while Clinton only just matched Barack Obama's 2012 totals.[350] Hamdan also said Trump was "the highest vote earner of any Republican candidate ever," exceeding George W. Bush's 62.04 million votes in 2004, though neither reached Clinton's 65.9 million, nor Obama's 69.5 million votes in 2008, the overall record.[350] He concluded, with help from The Cook Political Report, that the election hinged not on Clinton's large 2.8 million overall vote margin over Trump, but rather on about 78,000 votes from only three counties in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.[350][352]

text: Candidates table

text:
Presidential candidate
Party
Home state
Popular vote
Electoral
vote
Running mate

Count
Percentage
Vice-presidential candidate
Home state
Electoral vote

Donald Trump
Republican
New York
62,984,828
46.09%
304
Mike Pence
Indiana
305

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Democratic
New York
65,853,514
48.18%
227
Tim Kaine
Virginia
227

Colin Powell(a)
Republican
Virginia
25(c)
0.00%(c)
3
Elizabeth Warren(a)
Massachusetts
2

Maria Cantwell(a)
Washington
1

Susan Collins(a)
Maine
1

Bernie Sanders(a)
Independent
Vermont
111,850(c)
0.08%(c)
1
Tulsi Gabbard(c)
Hawaii
0

Elizabeth Warren(a)
Massachusetts
1

John Kasich(a)(b)
Republican
Ohio
2,684(c)
0.00%(c)
1
Carly Fiorina(a)(b)
Virginia
1

Ron Paul(a)(b)
Libertarian
Texas
124(c)
0.00%(c)
1
Mike Pence
Indiana
1

Faith Spotted Eagle(a)
Democratic
South Dakota
0
0.00%
1
Winona LaDuke(a)
Minnesota
1

Gary Johnson
Libertarian
New Mexico
4,489,235
3.27%
0
Bill Weld
Massachusetts
0

Jill Stein
Green
Massachusetts
1,457,226
1.06%
0
Ajamu Baraka
Illinois
0

Evan McMullin
Independent
Utah
732,273
0.53%
0
Mindy Finn
District of Columbia
0

Darrell Castle
Constitution
Tennessee
203,091
0.15%
0
Scott Bradley
Utah
0

Gloria La Riva
Socialism and Liberation
California
74,405
0.05%
0
Eugene Puryear
District of Columbia
0

Other
1,215,785
0.89%
—
Other
—

Total
137,125,040
100%
538

538

Needed to win
270

270

text: Source (Popular Vote):

text:
Nationwide:[259]
Leip, David. "2016 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 4, 2018.

text: For Bernie Sanders and John Kasich: CA:[353] and[354] NH:[355] VT:[356] NC:[357] PA:[358] RI:[359]

text: (a) Received electoral vote(s) from a faithless elector.

text: (b) Two faithless electors from Texas cast their presidential votes for Ron Paul and John Kasich, respectively. Chris Suprun stated that he cast his presidential vote for John Kasich and his vice presidential vote for Carly Fiorina. The other faithless elector in Texas, Bill Greene, cast his presidential vote for Ron Paul but cast his vice presidential vote for Mike Pence, as pledged. John Kasich received recorded write-in votes in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

text: (c) Candidate received votes as a write-in. The exact numbers of write-in votes for Sanders have been published for three states. In California, his official running mate was Tulsi Gabbard and in New Hampshire and Vermont there was not a running mate attached to Sanders.[360] It was possible to vote Sanders as a write-in candidate in 14 states.[361]

text:
Popular vote

Clinton

48.18%

Trump

46.09%

Johnson

3.27%

Stein

1.06%

McMullin

0.53%

Others

1.2%

text:
Electoral vote—Pledged

Trump/Pence

56.88%

Clinton/Kaine

43.12%

text:
Electoral vote—President

Trump

56.51%

Clinton

42.19%

Powell

0.56%

Kasich

0.19%

Paul

0.19%

Sanders

0.19%

Spotted Eagle

0.19%

text:
Electoral vote—Vice President

Pence

56.70%

Kaine

42.38%

Warren

0.38%

Cantwell

0.19%

Collins

0.19%

Fiorina

0.19%

LaDuke

0.19%

text: Results by state

text: The table below displays the official vote tallies by each state's Electoral College voting method. The source for the results of all states is the official Federal Election Commission report. The column labeled "Margin" shows Trump's margin of victory over Clinton (the margin is negative for every state the Clinton won).

text: A total of 29 third party and independent presidential candidates appeared on the ballot in at least one state. Former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson and physician Jill Stein repeated their 2012 roles as the nominees for the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, respectively.[362] With ballot access to the entire national electorate, Johnson received nearly 4.5 million votes (3.27%), the highest nationwide vote share for a third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1996,[363] while Stein received almost 1.45 million votes (1.06%), the most for a Green nominee since Ralph Nader in 2000.

text: Independent candidate Evan McMullin, who appeared on the ballot in 11 states, received over 732,000 votes (0.53%). He won 21.4% of the vote in his home state of Utah, the highest share of the vote for a third-party candidate in any state since 1992.[364] Despite dropping out of the election following his defeat in the Democratic primary, Senator Bernie Sanders received 5.7% of the vote in his home state of Vermont, the highest write-in draft campaign percentage for a presidential candidate in American history.[365] Johnson and McMullin were the first third party candidates since Nader to receive at least 5% of the vote in one or more states, with Johnson crossing the mark in 11 states and McMullin crossing it in two.

text: Aside from Florida and North Carolina, the states which secured Trump's victory are situated in the Great Lakes/Rust Belt region. Wisconsin went Republican for the first time since 1984, while Pennsylvania and Michigan went Republican for the first time since 1988.[366][367][368] Stein petitioned for a recount in these states. The Clinton campaign pledged to participate in the Green Party recount efforts, while Trump backers challenged them in court.[369][370][371] Meanwhile, American Delta Party/Reform Party presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente petitioned for and was granted a partial recount in Nevada.[372]

text:
States won by Clinton/Kaine

States won by Trump/Pence

text: Electoral methods

text:
WTA—Winner-takes-all
CD—Congressional district★

text:
Hillary Clinton
Democratic
Donald Trump
Republican
Gary Johnson
Libertarian
Jill Stein
Green
Evan McMullin
Independent
Others
Margin
Total

State or
district
Electoral
method
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
Electoral
votes
#
%
#
State
Source(s)

Alabama
WTA
729,547
34.36%
–
1,318,255
62.08%
9
44,467
2.09%
–
9,391
0.44%
–
–
–
–
21,712
1.02%
–
588,708
27.73%
2,123,372
AL
[373]

Alaska
WTA
116,454
36.55%
–
163,387
51.28%
3
18,725
5.88%
–
5,735
1.80%
–
–
–
–
14,307
4.49%
–
46,933
14.73%
318,608
AK
[374]

Arizona
WTA
1,161,167
45.13%
–
1,252,401
48.67%
11
106,327
4.13%
–
34,345
1.33%
–
17,449
0.68%
–
1,476
0.06%
–
91,234
3.55%
2,573,165
AZ
[375]

Arkansas
WTA
380,494
33.65%
–
684,872
60.57%
6
29,829
2.64%
–
9,473
0.84%
–
13,255
1.17%
–
12,712
1.12%
–
304,378
26.92%
1,130,635
AR
[376]

California
WTA
8,753,788
61.73%
55
4,483,810
31.62%
–
478,500
3.37%
–
278,657
1.96%
–
39,596
0.28%
–
147,244
1.04%
–
−4,269,978
−30.11%
14,181,595
CA
[377]

Colorado
WTA
1,338,870
48.16%
9
1,202,484
43.25%
–
144,121
5.18%
–
38,437
1.38%
–
28,917
1.04%
–
27,418
0.99%
–
−136,386
−4.91%
2,780,247
CO
[378]

Connecticut
WTA
897,572
54.57%
7
673,215
40.93%
–
48,676
2.96%
–
22,841
1.39%
–
2,108
0.13%
–
508
0.03%
–
−224,357
−13.64%
1,644,920
CT
[379]

Delaware
WTA
235,603
53.09%
3
185,127
41.72%
–
14,757
3.32%
–
6,103
1.37%
–
706
0.16%
–
1,518
0.34%
–
−50,476
−11.37%
443,814
DE
[380][381]

District of Columbia
WTA
282,830
90.48%
3
12,723
4.07%
–
4,906
1.57%
–
4,258
1.36%
–
–
–
–
6,551
2.52%
–
−270,107
−86.78%
311,268
DC
[382]

Florida
WTA
4,504,975
47.82%
–
4,617,886
49.02%
29
207,043
2.20%
–
64,399
0.68%
–
–
–
–
25,736
0.28%
–
112,911
1.20%
9,420,039
FL
[383]

Georgia
WTA
1,877,963
45.64%
–
2,089,104
50.77%
16
125,306
3.05%
–
7,674
0.19%
–
13,017
0.32%
–
1,668
0.04%
–
211,141
5.13%
4,114,732
GA
[384][385]

Hawaii
WTA
266,891
62.22%
3
128,847
30.03%
–
15,954
3.72%
–
12,737
2.97%
–
–
–
–
4,508
1.05%
1
−138,044
−32.18%
428,937
HI
[386]

Idaho
WTA
189,765
27.49%
–
409,055
59.26%
4
28,331
4.10%
–
8,496
1.23%
–
46,476
6.73%
–
8,132
1.18%
–
219,290
31.77%
690,255
ID
[387]

Illinois
WTA
3,090,729
55.83%
20
2,146,015
38.76%
–
209,596
3.79%
–
76,802
1.39%
–
11,655
0.21%
–
1,627
0.03%
–
−944,714
−17.06%
5,536,424
IL
[388]

Indiana
WTA
1,033,126
37.91%
–
1,557,286
56.82%
11
133,993
4.89%
–
7,841
0.27%
–
–
–
–
2,712
0.10%
–
524,160
19.17%
2,734,958
IN
[389]

Iowa
WTA
653,669
41.74%
–
800,983
51.15%
6
59,186
3.78%
–
11,479
0.73%
–
12,366
0.79%
–
28,348
1.81%
–
147,314
9.41%
1,566,031
IA
[390]

Kansas
WTA
427,005
36.05%
–
671,018
56.65%
6
55,406
4.68%
–
23,506
1.98%
–
6,520
0.55%
–
947
0.08%
–
244,013
20.60%
1,184,402
KS
[391]

Kentucky
WTA
628,854
32.68%
–
1,202,971
62.52%
8
53,752
2.79%
–
13,913
0.72%
–
22,780
1.18%
–
1,879
0.10%
–
574,177
29.84%
1,924,149
KY
[392]

Louisiana
WTA
780,154
38.45%
–
1,178,638
58.09%
8
37,978
1.87%
–
14,031
0.69%
–
8,547
0.42%
–
9,684
0.48%
–
398,484
19.64%
2,029,032
LA
[393]

Maine (at-lg)
WTA[c]
357,735
47.83%
2
335,593
44.87%
–
38,105
5.09%
–
14,251
1.91%
–
1,887
0.25%
–
356
0.05%
–
−22,142
−2.96%
747,927
ME–a/l
[394][395]

Maine, 1st
CD[c]
212,774
53.96%
1
154,384
39.15%
–
18,592
4.71%
–
7,563
1.92%
–
807
0.20%
–
209
0.05%
–
−58,390
−14.81%
394,329
ME-1

Maine, 2nd
CD[c]
144,817
40.98%
–
181,177
51.26%
1
19,510
5.52%
–
6,685
1.89%
–
1,080
0.31%
–
147
0.04%
–
36,360
10.29%
353,416
ME-2
[394][395]

Maryland
WTA
1,677,928
60.33%
10
943,169
33.91%
–
79,605
2.86%
–
35,945
1.29%
–
9,630
0.35%
–
35,169
1.26%
–
−734,759
−26.42%
2,781,446
MD
[396]

Massachusetts
WTA
1,995,196
60.01%
11
1,090,893
32.81%
–
138,018
4.15%
–
47,661
1.43%
–
2,719
0.08%
–
50,559
1.52%
–
−904,303
−27.20%
3,325,046
MA
[397]

Michigan
WTA
2,268,839
47.27%
–
2,279,543
47.50%
16
172,136
3.59%
–
51,463
1.07%
–
8,177
0.17%
–
19,126
0.40%
–
10,704
0.22%
4,799,284
MI
[398]

Minnesota
WTA
1,367,716
46.44%
10
1,322,951
44.92%
–
112,972
3.84%
–
36,985
1.26%
–
53,076
1.80%
–
51,113
1.74%
–
−44,765
−1.52%
2,944,813
MN
[399]

Mississippi
WTA
485,131
40.11%
–
700,714
57.94%
6
14,435
1.19%
–
3,731
0.31%
–
–
–
–
5,346
0.44%
–
215,583
17.83%
1,209,357
MS
[400]

Missouri
WTA
1,071,068
38.14%
–
1,594,511
56.77%
10
97,359
3.47%
–
25,419
0.91%
–
7,071
0.25%
–
13,177
0.47%
–
523,443
18.64%
2,808,605
MO
[401]

Montana
WTA
177,709
35.75%
–
279,240
56.17%
3
28,037
5.64%
–
7,970
1.60%
–
2,297
0.46%
–
1,894
0.38%
–
101,531
20.42%
497,147
MT
[402][403]

Nebraska (at-lg)
WTA
284,494
33.70%
–
495,961
58.75%
2
38,946
4.61%
–
8,775
1.04%
–
–
–
–
16,051
1.90%
–
211,467
25.05%
844,227
NE–a/l
[404]

Nebraska, 1st
CD
100,126
35.46%
–
158,626
56.18%
1
14,031
4.97%
–
3,374
1.19%
–
–
–
–
6,181
2.19%
–
58,500
20.72%
282,338
NE-1

Nebraska, 2nd
CD
131,030
44.92%
–
137,564
47.16%
1
13,245
4.54%
–
3,347
1.15%
–
–
–
–
6,494
2.23%
–
6,534
2.24%
291,680
NE-2

Nebraska, 3rd
CD
53,290
19.73%
–
199,657
73.92%
1
11,657
4.32%
–
2,054
0.76%
–
–
–
–
3,451
1.28%
–
146,367
54.19%
270,109
NE-3

Nevada
WTA
539,260
47.92%
6
512,058
45.50%
–
37,384
3.32%
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
36,683
3.26%
–
−27,202
−2.42%
1,125,385
NV
[405]

New Hampshire
WTA
348,526
46.98%
4
345,790
46.61%
–
30,777
4.15%
–
6,496
0.88%
–
1,064
0.14%
–
11,643
1.24%
–
−2,736
−0.37%
744,296
NH
[406]

New Jersey
WTA
2,148,278
54.99%
14
1,601,933
41.00%
–
72,477
1.86%
–
37,772
0.97%
–
–
–
–
13,586
1.18%
–
−546,345
−14.10%
3,874,046
NJ
[407]

New Mexico
WTA
385,234
48.26%
5
319,667
40.04%
–
74,541
9.34%
–
9,879
1.24%
–
5,825
0.73%
–
3,173
0.40%
–
−65,567
−8.21%
798,319
NM
[408]

New York
WTA
4,556,124
59.01%
29
2,819,534
36.52%
–
176,598
2.29%
–
107,934
1.40%
–
10,373
0.13%
–
50,890
0.66%
–
−1,736,590
−22.49%
7,721,453
NY
[409]

North Carolina
WTA
2,189,316
46.17%
–
2,362,631
49.83%
15
130,126
2.74%
–
12,105
0.26%
–
–
–
–
47,386
1.00%
–
173,315
3.66%
4,741,564
NC
[410]

North Dakota
WTA
93,758
27.23%
–
216,794
62.96%
3
21,434
6.22%
–
3,780
1.10%
–
–
–
–
8,594
2.49%
–
123,036
35.73%
344,360
ND
[411]

Ohio
WTA
2,394,164
43.56%
–
2,841,005
51.69%
18
174,498
3.17%
–
46,271
0.84%
–
12,574
0.23%
–
27,975
0.51%
–
446,841
8.13%
5,496,487
OH
[412]

Oklahoma
WTA
420,375
28.93%
–
949,136
65.32%
7
83,481
5.75%
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
N/A
N/A
–
528,761
37.08%
1,452,992
OK
[413]

Oregon
WTA
1,002,106
50.07%
7
782,403
39.09%
–
94,231
4.71%
–
50,002
2.50%
–
–
–
–
72,594
3.63%
–
−219,703
−10.98%
2,001,336
OR
[414]

Pennsylvania
WTA
2,926,441
47.46%
–
2,970,733
48.18%
20
146,715
2.38%
–
49,941
0.81%
–
6,472
0.11%
–
65,176
1.06%
–
44,292
0.72%
6,165,478
PA
[415]

Rhode Island
WTA
252,525
54.41%
4
180,543
38.90%
–
14,746
3.18%
–
6,220
1.34%
–
516
0.11%
–
9,594
2.07%
–
−71,982
−15.51%
464,144
RI
[416]

South Carolina
WTA
855,373
40.67%
–
1,155,389
54.94%
9
49,204
2.34%
–
13,034
0.62%
–
21,016
1.00%
–
9,011
0.43%
–
300,016
14.27%
2,103,027
SC
[417]

South Dakota
WTA
117,458
31.74%
–
227,721
61.53%
3
20,850
5.63%
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
4,064
1.10%
–
110,263
29.79%
370,093
SD
[418]

Tennessee
WTA
870,695
34.72%
–
1,522,925
60.72%
11
70,397
2.81%
–
15,993
0.64%
–
11,991
0.48%
–
16,026
0.64%
–
652,230
26.01%
2,508,027
TN
[419]

Texas
WTA
3,877,868
43.24%
–
4,685,047
52.23%
36
283,492
3.16%
–
71,558
0.80%
–
42,366
0.47%
–
8,895
0.10%
2
807,179
9.00%
8,969,226
TX
[420]

Utah
WTA
310,676
27.46%
–
515,231
45.54%
6
39,608
3.50%
–
9,438
0.83%
–
243,690
21.54%
–
12,787
1.13%
–
204,555
18.08%
1,131,430
UT
[421]

Vermont
WTA
178,573
56.68%
3
95,369
30.27%
–
10,078
3.20%
–
6,758
2.14%
–
639
0.20%
–
23,650
7.51%
–
−83,204
−26.41%
315,067
VT
[422]

Virginia
WTA
1,981,473
49.73%
13
1,769,443
44.41%
–
118,274
2.97%
–
27,638
0.69%
–
54,054
1.36%
–
33,749
0.85%
–
−212,030
−5.32%
3,984,631
VA
[423]

Washington
WTA
1,742,718
52.54%
8
1,221,747
36.83%
–
160,879
4.85%
–
58,417
1.76%
–
–
–
–
133,258
4.02%
4
−520,971
−15.71%
3,317,019
WA
[424]

West Virginia
WTA
188,794
26.43%
–
489,371
68.50%
5
23,004
3.22%
–
8,075
1.13%
–
1,104
0.15%
–
4,075
0.57%
–
300,577
42.07%
714,423
WV
[425]

Wisconsin
WTA
1,382,536
46.45%
–
1,405,284
47.22%
10
106,674
3.58%
–
31,072
1.04%
–
11,855
0.40%
–
38,729
1.30%
–
22,748
0.76%
2,976,150
WI
[426]

Wyoming
WTA
55,973
21.63%
–
174,419
67.40%
3
13,287
5.13%
–
2,515
0.97%
–
–
–
–
9,655
3.73%
–
118,446
46.30%
255,849
WY
[427]

U.S. Total
–
65,853,514
48.18%
227
62,984,828
46.09%
304
4,489,235
3.27%
–
1,457,226
1.06%
–
732,273
0.53%
–
1,154,084
0.84%
7
−2,868,518
−2.09%
137,125,040
US

text: ★Two states (Maine and Nebraska) allow for their electoral votes to be split between candidates.[c] The winner within each congressional district gets one electoral vote for the district. The winner of the statewide vote gets two additional electoral votes.[429][430] Results are from The New York Times.[342]

text: Close races

text: Red denotes states (or congressional districts whose electoral votes are awarded separately) won by Republican Donald Trump; blue denotes those won by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

text: States where the margin of victory was under 1% (50 electoral votes; 46 won by Trump, 4 by Clinton):

text:
Michigan, 0.22% - 16
New Hampshire, 0.37% - 4
Pennsylvania, 0.72% - 20 (tipping point state including 2 faithless electors from Texas)[431]
Wisconsin, 0.76% - 10 (tipping point state excluding 2 faithless electors from Texas)[431]

text: States/districts where the margin of victory was between 1% and 5% (83 electoral votes; 56 won by Trump, 27 by Clinton):

text:
Florida, 1.20% - 29
Minnesota, 1.52% - 10
Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, 2.24% - 1
Nevada, 2.42% - 6
Maine, 2.96% - 2
Arizona, 3.55% - 11
North Carolina, 3.66% - 15
Colorado, 4.91% - 9

text: States where the margin of victory was between 5% and 10% (94 electoral votes; 76 won by Trump, 18 by Clinton):

text:
Georgia, 5.13% - 16
Virginia, 5.32% - 13
Ohio, 8.13% - 18
New Mexico, 8.21% - 5
Texas, 9.00% - 36
Iowa, 9.41% - 6

text: Breakdown by ticket

text:
State
Party
Presidential vote
Vice presidential vote
Name of Elector
References

Nationwide

Donald Trump, 304
Mike Pence, 305
Pledged

Hillary Clinton, 227
Tim Kaine, 227

Hawaii

Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
David Mulinix
[432]

Texas

John Kasich (R-OH)
Carly Fiorina (R-VA)
Christopher Suprun
[433][434]

Ron Paul (L-TX / R-TX)
Mike Pence (as pledged)
Bill Greene
[433][435]

Washington

Colin Powell (R-VA)[439]
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Levi Guerra
[440][441]

Susan Collins (R-ME)
Esther John
[103][440]

Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Bret Chiafalo
[103][440]

Faith Spotted Eagle (D-SD)[442]
Winona LaDuke (G-MN)
Robert Satiacum, Jr.
[103][440][443]

text: Battleground states

text: Most media outlets announced the beginning of the presidential race about twenty months prior to Election Day. Soon after the first contestants declared their candidacy, Larry Sabato listed Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, Nevada, and Ohio as the seven states most likely to be contested in the general election. After Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination, many pundits felt that the major campaign locations might be different from what had originally been expected.[444]

text: Rust Belt states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Michigan were thought to be in play with Trump as the nominee, while states with large minority populations, such as Colorado and Virginia, were expected to shift towards Clinton.[445] By the conventions period and the debates, however, it did not seem as though the Rust Belt states could deliver a victory to Trump. According to Politico[446] and the 538 online blog, his path to victory went through states such as Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, and possibly Colorado.[447][448][449][450]

text: Early polling indicated a closer-than-usual race in former Democratic strongholds such as Washington, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine (for the two statewide electoral votes), and New Mexico.[451][452][453] Meanwhile, research indicators from inside of a host of Republican-leaning states such as Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Alaska, Utah, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and South Dakota reported weaker support for Trump than expected, although the nominee's position solidified in a few other areas. Some reviews took this information as evidence of an expanded 'swing-state map'.[454]

text: A consensus among political pundits developed throughout the primary election season regarding swing states.[455] From the results of presidential elections from 2004 through to 2012, the Democratic and Republican parties would generally start with a safe electoral vote count of about 150 to 200.[456][457] However, the margins required to constitute a swing state are vague, and can vary between groups of analysts.[458][459] It was thought that left-leaning states in the Rust Belt could become more conservative, as Trump had strong appeal among many blue-collar workers.[460] They represent a large portion of the American populace and were a major factor in Trump's eventual nomination. Trump's primary campaign was propelled by victories in Democratic states, and his supporters often did not identify as Republican.[461] In addition, local factors may come into play. For example, Utah was the reddest state in 2012, although the Republican share was boosted significantly by the candidacy of Mormon candidate Mitt Romney.[458] Despite its partisan orientation, some reports suggested a victory there by independent candidate Evan McMullin, particularly if there was a nationwide blowout.[459]

text: Media reports indicated that both candidates planned to concentrate on Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.[462][463] Among the Republican-leaning states, potential Democratic targets included Nebraska's second congressional district, Georgia, and Arizona.[464] Trump's relatively poor polling in some traditionally Republican states, such as Utah, raised the possibility that they could vote for Clinton, despite easy wins there by recent Republican nominees.[465] However, many analysts asserted that these states were not yet viable Democratic destinations.[466][467] Several sites and individuals publish electoral predictions. These generally rate the race by the likelihood for each party to win a state.[468] The "tossup" label is usually used to indicate that neither party has an advantage, "lean" to indicate a party has a slight edge, "likely" to indicate a party has a clear but not overwhelming advantage, and "safe" to indicate a party has an advantage that cannot be overcome.[469]

text: As the parameters of the race established themselves, analysts converged on a narrower list of contested states, which were relatively similar to those of recent elections. On November 7, the Cook Political Report categorized Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as states with close races. Additionally, a district from each of Maine and Nebraska were considered to be coin flips.[470] Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight listed twenty-two states as potentially competitive about a month before the election – Maine's two at-large electoral votes, New Mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Arizona, Georgia, Alaska, South Carolina, Texas, Indiana, Missouri, and Utah – as well as Maine's second and Nebraska's second congressional districts.[471] Nate Silver, the publication's editor-in-chief, subsequently removed Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, and Indiana from the list after the race tightened significantly.[472] These conclusions were supported by models such as the Princeton Elections Consortium, the New York Times Upshot, and punditry evaluations from Sabato's Crystal Ball and the Cook Political Report.[473][474][475][476]

text: Clinton won states like New Mexico by less than 10 percentage points.[477] Among the states where the candidates finished at a margin of within 7 percent, Clinton won Virginia (13 electoral votes), Colorado (9), Maine (2), Minnesota (10), and New Hampshire (4). On the other hand, Trump won Michigan (16), Pennsylvania (20), Wisconsin (10), Florida (29), North Carolina (15), Arizona (11), Nebraska's second district (1), and Georgia (16). States won by Obama in the 2012 contest, such as Ohio (18), Iowa (6), and Maine's second district (1), were also won by Trump. The close result in Maine was not expected by most commentators, nor were Trump's victory of over 10 points in the second district and their disparities.[478][479][480] The dramatic shift of Midwestern states towards Trump were contrasted in the media against the relative movement of Southern states towards the Democrats.[481] For example, former Democratic strongholds such as Minnesota leaned towards the GOP and Iowa voted more Republican than Texas did, while Arizona and Georgia were more Democratic than Ohio.[482][483] Trump's smaller victories in Alaska and Utah also took some experts by surprise.[484]

text: After the conventions of the national parties, candidates from the main parties carried out trips to the states: Florida - 72, Pennsylvania - 59, North Carolina - 52, Ohio - 43, Virginia - 25, Michigan - 24, Iowa - 23, New Hampshire - 22, Colorado - 19, Nevada - 16, Wisconsin - 15, Arizona - 10.

text: Maps

text:
Results by state, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Results by vote distribution among states. Each state's pie chart is proportional to the number of electoral votes they have.

Results by county. Red denotes counties that went to Trump; blue denotes counties that went to Clinton.

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote (Red-Purple-Blue view)

Results by state and DC, scaled by number of Electors per state.

United States presidential election, 2016 cartogram

United States presidential election, 2016 cartogram

Results of 2016 U.S. presidential election by congressional district, shaded by vote margin

County swing from 2012 to 2016

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Trump

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Clinton

Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Johnson (0%–10% scale)

text: Voter demographics

text: Voter demographic data for 2016 were collected by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and the Associated Press. The voter survey is based on exit polls completed by 24,537 voters leaving 350 voting places throughout the United States on Election Day, in addition to 4,398 telephone interviews with early and absentee voters.[485] Trump's crucial victories in the Midwest were aided in large part by his strong margins among non-college whites – while Obama lost those voters by a margin of 10 points in 2012, Clinton lost this group by 20 percent. The election also represented the first time that Republicans performed better among lower-income whites than among affluent white voters.[486] To some analysts' surprise, Trump narrowed Clinton's margin compared to Obama by 7 points among blacks and African-Americans, 8 points among Latinos, and 11 points among Asian-Americans. Meanwhile, Trump increased his lead with non-Hispanic white voters through 1 percent over Mitt Romney's performance, and American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders shifted their support towards the Republican candidate using the same relative amount.[487] Additionally, although 74 percent of Muslim voters supported Clinton, Trump nearly doubled his support among those voters compared to Mitt Romney, according to the Council on American–Islamic Relations exit poll.[488]

text: However, "more convincing data"[489] from the polling firm Latino Decisions indicates that Clinton received a higher share of the Hispanic vote, and Trump a lower share, than the Edison exit polls showed. Using wider, more geographically and linguistically representative sampling, Latino Decisions concluded that Clinton won 79% of Hispanic voters (also an improvement over Obama's share in 2008 and 2012), while Trump won only 18% (lower than previous Republicans such as Romney and McCain).[490] Additionally, the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study found that Clinton's share of the Hispanic vote was 1 percentage point higher than Obama's in 2012, while Trump's was 7 percentage points lower than Romney's.[491]

text: Similarly, a large, multi-lingual study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund found that Clinton won 79% of Asian-American voters, higher than the Edison exit poll showed, while Trump only won 18%, a decrease from McCain's and Romney's numbers.[492] Furthermore, according to the AALDEF's report, Trump received merely 2% of the Muslim-American vote, whereas Clinton received 97%.[493]

text:
2016 Presidential vote by demographic subgroup (Edison Exit Polling)

Demographic subgroup
Clinton
Trump
Other
% of
total vote

Total vote
48
46
6
100

Ideology

Liberals
84
10
6
26

Moderates
52
41
7
39

Conservatives
15
81
4
35

Party

Democrats
89
9
2
37

Republicans
7
90
3
33

Independents
42
48
10
31

Party by gender

Democratic men
87
10
3
14

Democratic women
90
8
2
23

Republican men
6
90
2
17

Republican women
8
89
2
16

Independent men
37
51
10
17

Independent women
47
43
7
14

Gender

Men
41
52
7
47

Women
54
41
5
53

Marital status

Married
44
52
4
59

Unmarried
55
37
8
41

Gender by marital status

Married men
37
58
5
29

Married women
49
47
4
30

Non-married men
46
45
9
19

Non-married women
62
33
5
23

Race/ethnicity

White
37
58
5
70

Black
88
8
4
12

Asian
65
29
6
4

Other
56
37
7
3

Hispanic (of any race)
65
29
6
11

Gender by race/ethnicity

White men
31
63
5
34

White women
43
53
3
37

Black men
80
13
6
5

Black women
94
4
2
7

Latino men (of any race)
62
33
4
5

Latino women (of any race)
68
26
5
6

All other races
61
32
5
6

Religion

Protestant
37
60
3
27

Catholic
45
52
3
23

Mormon
25
61
14
1

Other Christian
43
55
2
24

Jewish
71
24
5
3

Other religion
58
33
9
7

None
68
26
6
15

Religious service attendance

Weekly or more
40
56
4
33

Monthly
46
49
5
16

A few times a year
48
47
5
29

Never
62
31
7
22

White evangelical or born-again Christian

White evangelical or born-again Christian
16
81
3
26

Everyone else
59
35
6
74

Age

18–24 years old
56
35
9
10

25–29 years old
53
39
8
9

30–39 years old
51
40
9
17

40–49 years old
46
50
4
19

50–64 years old
44
53
3
30

65 and older
45
53
2
15

Age by race

Whites 18–29 years old
43
47
10
12

Whites 30–44 years old
37
54
9
16

Whites 45–64 years old
34
62
4
30

Whites 65 and older
39
58
3
13

Blacks 18–29 years old
85
9
6
3

Blacks 30–44 years old
89
7
4
4

Blacks 45–64 years old
89
7
4
5

Blacks 65 and older
91
9
n/a
1

Latinos 18–29 years old
68
26
6
3

Latinos 30–44 years old
65
28
7
4

Latinos 45–64 years old
64
32
4
4

Latinos 65 and older
73
25
2
1

Others
61
31
8
6

Sexual orientation

LGBT
78
14
8
5

Heterosexual
47
48
5
95

First time voter

First time voter
56
40
4
10

Everyone else
47
47
6
90

Education

High school or less
45
51
4
18

Some college education
43
52
5
32

College graduate
49
45
6
32

Postgraduate education
58
37
5
18

Education by race/ethnicity

White college graduates
45
49
4
37

White no college degree
28
67
4
34

Non-white college graduates
71
23
5
13

Non-white no college degree
75
20
3
16

Education by race/ethnicity/sex

White women with college degrees
51
44
5
20

White men with college degrees
39
53
8
17

White women without college degrees
34
61
5
17

White men without college degrees
23
71
6
16

Non-whites
74
21
5
29

Family income

Under $30,000
53
41
6
17

$30,000–49,999
51
42
7
19

$50,000–99,999
46
50
4
31

$100,000–199,999
47
48
5
24

$200,000–249,999
48
49
3
4

Over $250,000
46
48
6
6

Union households

Union
51
42
7
18

Non-union
46
48
6
82

Military service

Veterans
34
60
6
13

Non-veterans
50
44
6
87

Issue regarded as most important

Foreign policy
60
34
6
13

Immigration
32
64
4
13

Economy
52
42
6
52

Terrorism
39
57
4
18

Region

Northeast
55
40
5
19

Midwest
45
49
6
23

South
44
52
4
37

West
55
39
6
21

Community size

Cities (population 50,000 and above)
59
35
6
34

Suburbs
45
50
5
49

Rural areas
34
62
4
17

text: Forecasting

text: Various methods were used to forecast the outcome of the 2016 election.[494] For the 2016 election, there were many competing election forecast approaches including Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight, The Upshot at The New York Times, Daily Kos, Princeton Election Consortium, Cook Political Report, Rothenberg and Gonzales, PollyVote, Sabato's Crystal Ball and Electoral-Vote. These models mostly showed a Democratic advantage since the nominees were confirmed, and were supported by pundits and statisticians, including Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, Nate Cohn at The New York Times, and Larry Sabato from the Crystal Ball newsletter, who predicted a Democratic victory in competitive presidential races and projected consistent leads in several battleground states around the country.[495] The near-unanimity of forecasters in predicting a Clinton victory may have been the result of groupthink. However, FiveThirtyEight's model pointed to the possibility of an Electoral College-popular vote split widening in the final weeks based on Trump's improvement in swing states like Florida or Pennsylvania. This was due to the demographics targeted by Trump's campaign which lived in big numbers there, in addition to Clinton's poor performance in several of those swing states in comparison with Obama's performance in 2012, as well as having a big number of her potential voters in very populated traditionally 'blue' states, but also in some very populated states traditionally 'red', like Texas, which were projected safe for Trump.[496]

text: Early exit polls generally favored Clinton.[497] After the polls closed and some of the results came in, the forecasts were found to be inaccurate, as Trump performed better in the competitive Midwestern states, such as Iowa, Ohio, and Minnesota, than expected. Three states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan) which were considered to be part of Clinton's firewall, were won by Trump.[497] Of the states in the Great Lakes region, Clinton won the swing state of Minnesota by 1 point, as well as traditional Democratic strongholds such as New York and Illinois with populous urban centers. This result stands in contrast to the 2012 results, when President Obama won all but Indiana, which he carried in 2008. This table displays the final polling average published by Real Clear Politics on November 7, the actual electoral margin, and the over-performance by either candidate relative to the polls.

text:
State
Electoral votes
Polling average
Final result
Difference

Arizona
11
Trump +4[498]
Trump +3.5
Clinton +0.5

Colorado
9
Clinton +2.9[499]
Clinton +4.9
Clinton +2

Florida
29
Trump +0.2[500]
Trump +1.2
Trump +1

Georgia
16
Trump +4.8[501]
Trump +5.1
Trump +0.3

Iowa
6
Trump +3[502]
Trump +9.5
Trump +6.5

Maine
4
Clinton +4.5[503]
Clinton +2.9
Trump +1.6

Michigan
16
Clinton +3.4[504]
Trump +0.3
Trump +3.7

Minnesota
10
Clinton +6.2[505]
Clinton +1.5
Trump +4.7

Nevada
6
Trump +0.8[506]
Clinton +2.4
Clinton +3.2

New Hampshire
4
Clinton +0.6[507]
Clinton +0.3
Trump +0.3

New Mexico
5
Clinton +5[508]
Clinton +8.3
Clinton +3.3

North Carolina
15
Trump +1[509]
Trump +3.7
Trump +2.7

Ohio
18
Trump +3.5[510]
Trump +8.1
Trump +4.6

Pennsylvania
20
Clinton +1.9[511]
Trump +0.7
Trump +2.6

Virginia
13
Clinton +5[512]
Clinton +5.4
Clinton +0.4

Wisconsin
10
Clinton +6.5[513]
Trump +0.7
Trump +7.2

text: Many pollsters were puzzled by the failure of mainstream forecasting models to predict the outcome of the 2016 election.[514][515] Some journalists compared the 2016 election to the failure of prognosticator Arthur Henning in the "Dewey Defeats Truman" incident from the 1948 presidential election.[516][517] Sean Trende, writing for RealClearPolitics, wrote that many of the polls were accurate, but that the pundits' interpretation of these polls neglected polling error.[518] Nate Silver found that the high number of undecided and third-party voters in the election was neglected in many of these models, and that many of these voters decided to vote for Trump.[519] According to a February 2018 study by Public Opinion Quarterly, the main sources of polling error were "a late swing in vote preference toward Trump and a pervasive failure to adjust for over-representation of college graduates (who favored Clinton)," whereas the share of "shy" Trump voters (who declined to admit their support for Trump to the pollsters) proved to be negligible.[520]

text: FiveThirtyEight's final polls-plus forecast predicted 18 states, plus the second congressional districts of Maine and Nebraska, with an interval of confidence lower than 90%.[521][522] However, every major forecaster, including FiveThirtyEight, the New York Times Upshot, prediction markets aggregator PredictWise, ElectionBettingOdds from Maxim Lott and John Stossel, the DailyKos, the Princeton Election Consortium, the Huffington Post, the Cook Political Report, Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, and the Rothenberg and Gonzales Report, called every state the same way (although Cook and Rothenberg-Gonzales left two and five states as toss-ups, respectively). The sole exception was Maine's 2nd congressional district. Of the forecasters who published results on the district, the Times gave Trump a 64% chance of winning and PredictWise a 52% chance, FiveThirtyEight gave Clinton a 51% chance of winning in polls-only and 54% in polls-plus, Princeton gave her a 60% chance, Cook labelled it a toss-up, and Sabato leaned it towards Trump.[103] The following table displays the final winning probabilities given by each outlet, along with the final electoral result. The states shown have been identified by Politico,[523] WhipBoard,[524] the New York Times,[525] and the Crystal Ball as battlegrounds.

text:
State
New York Times Upshot[525]
FiveThirtyEight[525]
PredictWise[525]
Princeton Election Consortium[525]
Sabato's Crystal Ball[525]
2012 margin
2016 margin

Alaska
83% R
76% R
94% R
96% R
Likely R
14 R
15 R

Arizona
84% R
67% R
82% R
91% R
Lean R
9 R
4 R

Colorado
89% D
78% D
95% D
96% D
Likely D
5 D
5 D

Florida
67% D
55% D
77% D
69% D
Lean D
1 D
1 R

Georgia
83% R
79% R
91% R
88% R
Likely R
8 R
6 R

Iowa
62% R
70% R
79% R
74% R
Lean R
6 D
10 R

Maine (statewide)
91% D
83% D
98% D
98% D
Likely D
15 D
3 D

Maine (CD-2)
64% R
51% D
52% R
60% D
Lean R
9 D
10 R

Michigan
94% D
79% D
95% D
79% D
Lean D
9 D
1 R

Minnesota
94% D
85% D
99% D
98% D
Likely D
8 D
2 D

Nebraska (CD-2)
80% R
56% R
75% R
92% R
Lean R
7 R
3 R

New Mexico
95% D
83% D
98% D
91% D
Likely D
10 D
8 D

Nevada
68% D
58% D
91% D
84% D
Lean D
7 D
2 D

New Hampshire
79% D
70% D
84% D
63% D
Lean D
6 D
1 D

North Carolina
64% D
56% D
66% D
67% D
Lean D
2 R
4 R

Ohio
54% R
65% R
67% R
63% R
Lean R
3 D
9 R

Pennsylvania
89% D
77% D
93% D
79% D
Lean D
5 D
1 R

Utah
73% R
83% R
86% R
99% R
Lean R
48 R
18 R

Virginia
96% D
86% D
98% D
98% D
Likely D
4 D
5 D

Wisconsin
93% D
84% D
98% D
98% D
Likely D
7 D
1 R

text: Viewership

text:
Legend[526]

cable news network

broadcast network

Total television viewers
8:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern

Network
Viewers

CNN
13,258,000

FNC
12,112,000

NBC
11,152,000

ABC
9,236,000

CBS
8,008,000

MSNBC
5,945,000

Fox
4,196,000

Total cable TV viewers
2:00 to 3:00 AM Eastern

Network
Viewers

FNC
9,778,000

CNN
6,452,000

MSNBC
2,858,000

Cable TV viewers 25 to 54
2:00 to 3:00 AM Eastern

Network
Viewers

FNC
3,955,000

CNN
3,372,000

MSNBC
1,207,000

text: Post-election events and controversies

text: Trump's victory, considered unlikely by most forecasts,[527][528][529][530][531] was characterized as an "upset" and as "shocking" by the media.[532][533][534][535]

text: Protests

text: Following the announcement of Trump's election, large protests broke out across the United States with some continuing for several days.[536][537][538][539]

text: Protesters have held up a number of different signs and chanted various shouts including "Not my president" and "We don't accept the president-elect".[435][536] The movement organized on Twitter under the hashtags #Antitrump and #NotMyPresident.[540][541]

text: High school and college students walked out of classes to protest.[542] The protests were peaceful for the most part. At some protests fires were lit, flags and other items were burned and people yelled derogatory remarks about Trump. Rioters also broke glass at certain locations.[543][544][545] Celebrities such as Madonna, Cher, and Lady Gaga took part in New York.[546][547][548] Some protesters took to blocking freeways in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon, and were dispersed by police in the early hours of the morning.[549][550] In a number of cities, protesters were dispersed with rubber bullets, pepper spray and bean-bags fired by police.[551][552][553] In New York City, calls were made to continue the protests over the coming days after the election.[554] Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani called protesters "a bunch of spoiled cry-babies."[555] Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti expressed understanding of the protests and praised those who peacefully wanted to make their voices heard.[556]

text: Vote tampering concerns

text: After the election, computer scientists, including J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, urged the Clinton campaign to request an election recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (three swing states where Trump had won narrowly) for the purpose of excluding the possibility that the hacking of electronic voting machines had influenced the recorded outcome.[557][558][559] However, statistician Nate Silver performed a regression analysis which demonstrated that the alleged discrepancy between paper ballots and electronic voting machines "completely disappears once you control for race and education level".[560] On November 25, 2016, the Obama administration said the results from November 8 "accurately reflect the will of the American people."[561] The following day, the White House released another statement, saying: "the federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyberactivity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on Election Day."[562]

text: Recount petitions

text: On November 23, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein launched a public fundraiser to pay for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, asserting that the election's outcome had been affected by hacking in those states; Stein did not provide evidence for her claims.[563][564] Changing the outcome of these three states would make Clinton the winner, and this would require showing that fewer than 60 000 votes had been counted for Trump which should have been counted for Clinton. Stein filed for a recount in Wisconsin on November 25,[565] after which Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias stated that their campaign would join Stein's recount efforts in that state and possibly others "in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides."[370][566] Stein subsequently filed for a recount in Pennsylvania on November 28,[567] and in Michigan on November 30.[568] Concurrently, American Delta Party/Reform Party presidential candidate Rocky De La Fuente sought and was granted a partial recount in Nevada that was unrelated to Stein's efforts.[372]

text: President-elect Donald Trump issued a statement denouncing Stein's Wisconsin recount request saying, "The people have spoken and the election is over." Trump further commented that the recount "is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded."[569] The Trump campaign and Republican Party officials moved to block Stein's three recount efforts through state and federal courts.[570][571]

text: U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ordered a halt to the recount in Michigan on December 7, dissolving a previous temporary restraining order against the Michigan Board of Elections that allowed the recount to continue, stating in his order: "Plaintiffs have not presented evidence of tampering or mistake. Instead, they present speculative claims going to the vulnerability of the voting machinery – but not actual injury."[572] On December 12, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond rejected an appeal by the Green Party and Jill Stein to force a recount in Pennsylvania, stating that suspicion of a hacked Pennsylvania election "borders on the irrational" and that granting the Green Party's recount bid could "ensure that no Pennsylvania vote counts" given the December 13, 2016, federal deadline to certify the vote for the Electoral College.[573] Meanwhile, the Wisconsin recount was allowed to continue as it was nearing completion and had uncovered no significant irregularities.[574]

text: The recounts in Wisconsin and Nevada were completed on schedule, resulting in only minor changes to vote tallies.[575][576] A partial recount of Michigan ballot found some precinct imbalances in Detroit, which were corrected. A subsequent state audit found no evidence of voter fraud and concluded that the mistakes, which were "almost entirely" caused by poll-worker mistakes attributed to poor training, did not impair "the ability of Detroit residents to cast a ballot and have their vote counted."[577] The overall outcome of the election remained unchanged by the recount efforts.[575][576][578]

text: Electoral College lobbying

text: Intense lobbying (in one case involving claims of harassment and death threats[579]) and grass-roots campaigns have been directed at various GOP electors of the United States Electoral College[580] to convince a sufficient number of them (37) to not vote for Trump, thus precluding a Trump presidency.[581] Members of the Electoral College themselves started a campaign for other members to "vote their conscience for the good of America" in accordance with Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper No. 68.[582][583][584][585] This group's members may have become faithless electors in the presidential election.

text: On December 5, former candidate Lawrence Lessig and attorney Laurence Tribe established The Electors Trust under the aegis of EqualCitizens.US to provide pro bono legal counsel as well as a secure communications platform for members of the Electoral College who are regarding a vote of conscience against Trump.[586]

text: On December 6, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams castigated Democratic electors who had filed a lawsuit in Federal court to have the state law binding them to the popular vote (in their case for Hillary Clinton) overturned.[587]

text: On December 10, ten electors, in an open letter headed by Christine Pelosi to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, demanded an intelligence briefing[588][589] in light of Russian interference in the election to help Trump win the presidency.[590] Fifty-eight additional electors subsequently added their names to the letter,[589] bringing the total to 68 electors from 17 different states.[591] On December 16, the briefing request was denied.[592]

text: On December 19, several electors voted against their pledged candidates: two against Trump and five against Clinton. A further three electors attempted to vote against Clinton but were replaced or forced to vote again.

text: The 115th United States Congress officially certified the results on January 6, 2017.[593][594]

text: Faithless electors

text: In the Electoral College vote on December 19, for the first time since 1808, multiple faithless electors voted against their pledged qualified presidential candidate.[d] Five Democrats rebelled in Washington and Hawaii, while two Republicans rebelled in Texas.[595] Two Democratic electors, one in Minnesota and one in Colorado, were replaced after voting for Bernie Sanders and John Kasich, respectively.[596][597] Electors in Maine conducted a second vote after one of its members voted for Sanders; the elector then voted for Clinton.[598]

text: Likewise, for the first time since 1896,[e] multiple faithless electors voted against the pledged qualified vice presidential candidate.

text:
One Clinton elector in Colorado attempted to vote for John Kasich.[599] The single vote was ruled invalid by Colorado state law, the elector was dismissed, and an alternative elector was sworn in who voted for Clinton.[600][597]
One Clinton elector in Minnesota voted for Bernie Sanders as President and Tulsi Gabbard as vice president; his votes were discarded and he was replaced by an alternate who voted for Clinton.[600]
One Clinton elector in Maine voted for Bernie Sanders; this vote was invalidated as "improper" and the elector subsequently voted for Clinton.[600]
Four Clinton electors in Washington did not vote for Clinton (three votes went to Colin Powell, and one to Faith Spotted Eagle).[601]
One Trump elector in Georgia resigned before the vote rather than vote for Trump and was replaced by an alternate.[602]
Two Trump electors in Texas did not vote for Trump (one vote went to John Kasich, one to Ron Paul); one elector did not vote for Pence and instead voted for Carly Fiorina for Vice-President; a third resigned before the vote rather than vote for Trump and was replaced by an alternate.[601]
One Clinton elector in Hawaii voted for Bernie Sanders.[603]

text: Of the faithless votes, Colin Powell and Elizabeth Warren were the only two to receive more than one; Powell received three electoral votes for President and Warren received two for Vice President. Receiving one valid electoral vote each were Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul and Faith Spotted Eagle for President, and Carly Fiorina, Susan Collins, Winona LaDuke and Maria Cantwell for Vice President. Sanders is the first Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President. LaDuke is the first Green Party member to receive an electoral vote, and Paul is the third member of the Libertarian Party to do so, following the party's presidential and vice-presidential nominees each getting one vote in 1972. It is the first election with faithless electors from more than one political party. The seven people to receive electoral votes for president were the most in a single election since 1796, and more than any other election since the enactment of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804.