Donald Trump claims illegal voting robbed him of popular vote in US election
Updated
US President-elect Donald Trump claims he won the popular vote in the November 8 election "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally".
Key points:
- Mrs Clinton leads in the popular vote over Mr Trump
- But Mr Trump says if illegal votes were not counted, he would win
- The Electoral College results are expected to be finalised on December 19
The allegation, posted on Twitter by Mr Trump without any evidence, came as Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote over Mr Trump surpassed two million votes.
It is expected to grow to more than 2.5 million as ballots in populous states such as California continue to be tallied.
Mrs Clinton's legal team said it had agreed to participate in a recount of Wisconsin votes after the state's election board approved the effort requested by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, which Mr Trump has called "ridiculous".
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," Mr Trump tweeted.
The US presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, based on a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the national vote.
Mr Trump has surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
The Electoral College results are expected to be finalised on December 19.
Trump to take office in January
Mr Trump takes office on January 20.
"It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than in the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in three or four states instead of the 15 states that I visited," Mr Trump added in follow-up tweets.
Before the election, Mr Trump made unsubstantiated allegations that the results of the election might be "rigged" against him.
Since the vote, his message has alternated between appealing for unity and railing against his opponents and the media.
In a video message released ahead of the US Thanksgiving holiday, Mr Trump said he hoped it would be a time for Americans "to begin to heal our divisions" following a "long and bruising political campaign".
Mr Trump has derided the fundraising effort by Ms Stein to launch recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as a "scam."
Those states had voted Democratic in recent presidential elections, but all broke narrowly for the Republican Mr Trump in this month's election.
The recounts are not expected to change the results of the election.
Ms Stein, who won about 1 per cent of the national vote, has said she wants a recount to guarantee the integrity of the US voting system, a push that came after some experts raised the possibility that hacks could have affected the results.
Democratic President Barack Obama's administration has said there is no evidence of electoral tampering, but experts have said that the only way to verify the results are accurate is to conduct a recount.
Reuters
Topics: us-elections, government-and-politics, united-states
First posted
