Washington Watch: Trump elected President
Wednesday morning around 2:40 a.m., Fox News announced official results of the 2016 Presidential Election. Republican candidate Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton began Election Day leading the polls. But, the early results didn’t hold up at the end of the day.
Currently, the Electoral College favors Trump by 51 votes. He received 279 and Clinton tallied 228 of the 538 possible. 31 votes remain undecided as of this morning, Nov. 10.
As states work to tally their absentee ballots and report final numbers, the popular vote has swayed.
This morning at 8 a.m. Clinton was ahead in the popular vote by one percent which is about 200,000 votes of the more than 119 million registrants who participated.
This is the fifth time in the nation’s history that a candidate won the popular vote but lost the election. The last time it occurred was 2000 when George W. Bush clinched the electoral votes but the popular vote favored Al Gore by less than one percent.
These numbers continue to rise as Washington awaits the final results from Michigan, Arizona and New Hampshire. Regardless of the outcome, Trump secured the required 270 electoral votes and will become the next President.
Republicans have also claimed majority in the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
Following the official announcement, Trump took the stage at 3 a.m. at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, New York. He informed voters that Clinton had personally called him and conceded the race.
He added that all citizens owe her a “major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”
Many news sources credit Trump’s victory to voters who do not identify with either party.
According to the New York Times, Independents made up roughly 31 percent of Trump’s supporters.
Regardless of the party, Trump vows to support and represent all American citizens as the next President of the United States.
“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be present for all Americans,” Trump said during his first speech as President-elect.
The divide between parties is evident in every state including Ohio.
The Buckeye state saw nearly 5.5 million registered voters voice their opinion, giving Ohio a 69 percent voter turnout.
Clinton received 43.5 percent of the votes while Trump earned 52 percent. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party recorded 3.17 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein tallied less than one percent.
“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” Trump said. “It is time for us to come together as one united people.”
In a unique twist during the uncertainty of election night, Canada’s immigration website crashed at 1:55 a.m. According to CBS News, Google reported an extreme spike in web searches along the lines of “Canada immigration” as the results came in.
CNN reports that spokeswoman Lisa Filipps said the site was “temporarily inaccessible to users as a result of a significant increase in the volume of traffic.”
However, there is no guarantee the two are connected and Filipps gave no details about the source of the increased traffic.