--- 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 is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## 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.” \[[_Cook Political Report_](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count","datePublished":"2016-12-20T21:38:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:31.705Z","description":"Nearly 66 million Americans voted for the Democrat","url":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8a80e9cbac8777f/6988b39a8fd2ee27823553ce/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8a80e9cbac8777f/6988b39a8fd2ee27823553ce/hillary-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton And VP Biden Attend Portrait Unveiling For Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid","caption":"Hillary Clinton And VP Biden Attend Portrait Unveiling For Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/","name":"Hillary Clinton Leads by 2.8 Million in Final Popular Vote Count"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Revolt Fizzles as Donald Trump Easily Wins the Electoral College Vote","description":"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.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5zpxJAX1/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-12-19T20:43:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5zpxJAX1.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/","duration":"PT53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```