--- title: Hillary Clinton's Final Popular Vote Lead Is 2.8 Million description: Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote of the 2016 presidential election was nearly three million votes more than Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-20T21:38:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:31.705Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count og:description: Nearly 66 million Americans voted for the Democrat og:url: https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8a80e9cbac8777f/6988b39a8fd2ee27823553ce/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton And VP Biden Attend Portrait Unveiling For Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count twitter:description: Nearly 66 million Americans voted for the Democrat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8a80e9cbac8777f/6988b39a8fd2ee27823553ce/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Revolt Fizzles as Donald Trump Easily Wins the Electoral College Vote [Watch (HLS stream): Revolt Fizzles as Donald Trump Easily Wins the Electoral College Vote](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5zpxJAX1.m3u8) (0:53)  _Published 2016-12-19. Despite weeks of lobbying and a day of protests, President-elect Donald Trump won all but two of the Electoral College votes he claimed on Election Day, ensuring he will become America’s 45th president._ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 20, 2016 9:38 PM UTC  Former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is applauded before speaking at a portrait unveiling ceremony for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), on Capitol Hill December 8, 2016 in Washington, DC. Former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is applauded before speaking at a portrait unveiling ceremony for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), on Capitol Hill December 8, 2016 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Dec 20, 2016 9:38 PM UTC In the final count, [Hillary Clinton’s](http://time.com/4607933/clinton-trump-faithless-electors-precedent/) lead in the popular vote of the 2016 presidential election was nearly three million votes. According to the independent, non-partisan [Cook Political Report](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19), Clinton’s final tally came in at 65,844,610, compared to Donald Trump’s 62,979,636, with a difference of 2,864,974\. The total number of votes for other candidates was 7,804,213. Although Clinton captured nearly as many votes as Barack Obama did to win in 2012 ([65,915,795](https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/809916754331836416)), she lost the electoral college by a wide margin, clocking in at only 227 votes compared to Trump’s 304\. [Seven electors](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/19/us/elections/electoral-college-results.html) who were pledged to vote for either Clinton or Trump defected to other options, like Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders and “Faith Spotted Eagle.” \[[_Cook Political Report_](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19)\] ## Transcript The vote for President of the United States was 20 votes for Donald J. Trump, and the vote for Vice President of the United States, 20 votes for Michael R. Pence. 29 votes have been cast for the honorable Hilary Clinton, of New York, for President of the United States. [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you, Towers, for Counting the votes. The votes are-- 10 votes for Donald J. Trump. All 11 votes have been cast for Donald J. Trump. [ CHEERING ] Donald J. Trump received 16 electoral votes from the state of Michigan. For United States president Donald J Trump, Republican, nine. Hillary Clinton, Democratic 7. Jill Stein, Pacific Green, none. Gary Johnson, Libertarian, none. We cast nine votes for Donald R Trump as our next President of the United States. I said the wrong name. 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