How Many Electoral Votes Trump Got

The 2016 general election is finally over, and the electorate has spoken. We know who our next president will be, but that won't be made official until the electors meet on Dec. 19 to cast their votes for president. Given that some states don't have laws about how electors must vote, we won't know the exact number of electoral votes each candidate garners until they are cast, but, generally, electors vote faithfully based on the popular vote results of their states. Based on the popular vote, how many electoral votes did Donald Trump get?

The number of votes Trump will receive in December, should the electors follow protocol, is 279. A majority of the 538 total electoral votes available, or 270, was needed to win. Projections in early November varied by source, but the general trend was a likely win for Hillary Clinton with over 300 electoral votes and Trump earning fewer than 230. FiveThirtyEight had Clinton at 304 electoral votes to Trump's 232 on Nov. 1. Other sources painted a rosier picture for Clinton. Election Projection forecast a 323 to 215 win for Clinton.

FiveThirtyEight used up-to-date polling data from the states throughout the election to predict how many electoral votes each candidate was likely to earn. The site shows how the forecast changed over time throughout the general election. Only at the end of July did Trump barely overtake Clinton's projected electoral lead. Trump got closer again toward the end of September, but, following a month of rough debate performances and the release of an audio recording of him suggesting that famous men can do anything they want to women's bodies, Clinton's projected electoral lead saw a big bump.

A couple electors have expressed an unwillingness to cast their votes for Trump. One, Baoky Vu of Georgia, resigned in August. Another, Chris Suprun of Texas, expressed the same desire, according to politico. Since Texas doesn't have laws regulating electoral votes, if Suprun decided to vote for someone else, it's unclear whether it would count.