Despite Trump victory, Clinton pulls ahead in popular vote

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Preliminary numbers released by the Associated Press show that Republican Donald Trump has won the Electoral College with 276 votes, but it appears Democrat Hillary Clinton actually received more votes.

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Early Wednesday, Trump’s vote total was listed as 58,844,144, while Clinton tallied 58,879,687, a difference of more than 35,000 votes.

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As more votes came in, by 8:15 a.m. Clinton's popular vote lead increased to more than 135,000.

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A person winning the presidency without winning the popular vote is rare, but not unheard of in U.S. elections.

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Most recently, Democrat Al Gore lost the presidency to Republican George W. Bush, despite receiving more than 500,000 more votes than his opponent.