Donald Trump is set to be sworn in next month as the 45th president of the United States, despite garnering almost 3 million fewer votes than his challenger. 
 
 With the presidential election results now certified in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Hillary Clinton won a total of 65,844,610 votes ― 48.2 percent ― compared with Trump’s 62,979,636 votes ― 46.1 percent ― according to David Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Other candidates took 7,804,213 ballots, or about 5.7 percent of the popular vote. 
 
 All 50 states + DC now certified: 
 
 
 
 Clinton: 65,844,610 (48.2%) 
 
 Trump: 62,979,636 (46.1%) 
 
 Others: 7,804,213 (5.7%)https://t.co/j58GaxfPmH — Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 20, 2016 
 
 Clinton’s margin of victory in the popular vote is the largest in raw numbers for any candidate who has gone on to lose in the Electoral College. Her margin of victory is almost six times larger than that of Democrat Al Gore, whose popular vote win in 2000 is now the second-largest in this category. Gore received about 500,000 more votes than Republican George W. Bush, but came up short in the Electoral College after a hotly contested race in Florida. 
 
 Trump’s substantial deficit in the popular vote makes his margin by percentage of votes the third-worst among winning candidates since 1824 (when the popular vote was first officially recorded), according to an analysis by The New York Times published earlier this week. 
 
 Thanks to the Electoral College, none of this matters. Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232 on Election Day, securing him a comfortable victory last month. Although many of Trump’s opponents had spent the past few weeks trying to figure out how they could deny the real estate mogul a path to the White House, the Electoral College on Monday further secured his win. 
 
 A total of 304 electors cast their votes in favor of the GOP nominee, meaning just two Republican electors defected. Some 227 cast their presidential ballots for Clinton, with five Democratic electors switching their vote. Those seven defecting electors voted for other candidates. ||||| Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonBullying rates in Trump-supporting Virginia districts rose after 2016 election: study The challenge for Dems? Winning attention vs. Trump Group hoping to draft Beto plans ambitious 2020 push MORE won the popular vote by just under 3 million votes, final state vote totals aggregated by the Cook Report revealed on Tuesday. 
 
 The political news outlet, which has been tracking the votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, found Clinton with 65.8 million votes and 48.2 percent, compared to 62.9 million and 46.6 percent for Republican Donald Trump Donald John TrumpGovernment workers protest outside White House on shutdown day 20 Fed chief Powell: Prolonged shutdown will harm US economy Senators say questions remain on Trump strategy in Syria after briefing MORE. 
 
 It tweeted out that all of the states plus D.C. had certified their results. 
 
 All 50 states + DC now certified: 
 
 
 
 Clinton: 65,844,610 (48.2%) 
 
 Trump: 62,979,636 (46.1%) 
 
 Others: 7,804,213 (5.7%)https://t.co/j58GaxfPmH — Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 20, 2016 
 
 Other candidates — including Green Party Candidate Jill Stein, Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson Gary Earl JohnsonHillicon Valley: Social media struggles with new forms of misinformation | US, Russia decline to join pledge on fighting cybercrimes | Trump hits Comcast after antitrust complaint | Zuckerberg pressed to testify before global panel Ex-Facebook exec ousted from company sparked controversy with pro-Trump views: report Heinrich wins reelection to Senate in New Mexico MORE and write-ins — took 5.7 percent of the popular vote, Cook Report’s data showed. 
 
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 The results come a day after the Electoral College voted to secure Trump's presidency. 
 
 On Monday, Trump won 304 Electoral College votes — just two below those he won on election night. Two Republican electors cast their ballots for alternatives. 
 
 Clinton got 227 votes after five Democratic electors voted for alternatives. 
 
 Anti-Trump groups had urged Republican electors to defect but those efforts fell flat. Clinton received more defections than Trump in the final tally. 
 
 Many Democrats across the country have called for an end to the Electoral College since the election. 
 
 On Monday, The New York Times’s editorial board pushed for ending the Electoral College, calling it an “antiquated mechanism” that eliminates “basic fairness” from the presidential race. 
 
 Clinton is the second Democrat to lose the presidential election but win the popular vote in the last five races. Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore Albert (Al) Arnold GoreDem introduces bills to eliminate Electoral College, stop presidents from pardoning themselves Al Gore’s right about carbon capture and sequestration Democrats view 2020 as a referendum on democracy MORE in the 2000 election after Gore won the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes -- a sizably smaller lead than Clinton. 
 
 This story was updated at 3:04 p.m. ||||| Republican and president-elect Donald Trump's loss in the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton continues to grow nearly a week after he won the Electoral College vote, according to the latest tallies. Clinton now holds a 668,483 lead over the next president, with 61,039,676 votes to Trump’s 60,371,193, according to CNN. 
 
 Clinton has seen her lead steadily climb in the last six days since shockingly losing the Electoral College to Trump 290-232. On Friday, Clinton’s lead was a little more than 395,000 votes. The latest vote count shows she is beating Democrat Al Gore's grand total when he won the popular vote to George W. Bush in 2000, but ultimately lost the Electoral College vote. 
 
 As states still gather their final tallies, Clinton’s lead figures to grow even more. It’s possible Clinton will wind up with 2 million more votes than Trump, a 1.5 percentage point advantage, the New York Times reported. 
 
 Trump, speaking with his wife and children on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, chatted with interviewer Lesley Stahl about tweets he wrote during the campaign that claimed the electoral college is a “disaster for democracy” and that the election process is “rigged.” Trump hinted that he may understand the outcry from Clinton supporters about making the popular vote the primary factor in the presidential election. 
 
 “I hated-- well, you know, I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” Trump said. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win." 
 
 Millions of voters, including pop singers Lady Gaga, Pink and Sia want Republican electors to honor the popular vote and deliver the White House to Clinton. Critics claim the Electoral College favors states that once owned slaves. 
 
 "Most of us are taught that the Electoral College was designed to dilute democracy by forcing voters to choose independent electors, who then chose a president. That is true, but it’s only part of the story. The system was also designed to accommodate and preserve slavery, the ultimate tool of white supremacy—and later served to delay universal women’s suffrage," Slate wrote.
– Forty-three days after the election, all the votes have finally been tallied and certified. History will show Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by a final count of nearly 3 million votes, the Hill reports. According to a tweet Tuesday from the nonpartisan Cook Report, Clinton received 65,844,610 votes (48.2%) to Trump's 62,979,636 (46.1%). However with the Electoral College officially making Trump the 45th US president on Monday, history will also show Clinton as the second Democrat in the past five elections to win the popular vote but lose the presidency. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports Trump had the third worst popular-vote performance by a winning candidate on record.