I am still shocked that nobody else says these things <| sep |> He answer is deeper . We , the public , do not vote in a president . We give our recommendation to the electoral college who then does the actual voting . There are processes set in motion to be sure , but it isn ' t a lock until after December 19 th . In the case that the voting is wrong and made availablecertified before the 19 th , the recommendation would change going to the college and the electors as well . Those bound by state requirement to vote on party lines by state votes would change if a recount forced it . It doesn ' t matter what happened otherwise , all that matters is if the college votes to put someone in as president and they accept the nomination . Up till then it is all preliminary .