Votes are still being counted in the 2016 election as absentee ballots come in, and Hillary Clinton’s share of the popular vote is still widening.
The current official results show Clinton with half a percentage point of a lead over Donald Trump, and as the ballots come in, it is clear that the lead will only widen, especially with 4 million votes yet to be counted in California alone.
–Millions sign petition for electoral college to elect Hillary Clinton–
David Leonhardt, a columnist for The New York Times, noted on Friday that the current trend would put Clinton at 1.7 percentage points over Trump when all is said and done, which is a bigger margin than Richard Nixon had over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 or John F. Kennedy had over Nixon in 1960.
While the popular vote won’t change the election results because of the Electoral College, it does add fuel to the growing movement to abolish the Electoral College in favor of a purer democracy.