Dump Trump isn't dead, but it is getting desperate

The David Leips Atlas of U. S. Presidential Elections indicated on 23-24 November 2016 that Democrat Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton got 64,394,094 votes, against Republican candidate Donald Trump's 62,310,486 votes – more than any other Republican Presidential candidate in history.

No congratulations for Mr Trump from one half of the United States on his achievement and very many Democrats have not yet come to terms with his election by way of securing more Electors in the Electoral College. Moves are still afoot to try to overturn the Republican's victory. This, long after his opponent Hillary Clinton, graciously conceded defeat.

Mrs Clinton, apart from a complaint about the timing of a renewed investigation on her emails by the FBI shortly before election day, which she claims was a major reason for her losing, has made no effort to overturn the Electoral College vote on 19 December, nor has she attacked this system of electing the new President.

In the last couple of days we have seen Mrs Clinton with family and friends shopping at a local store, in her now home-town of Chappaqua, 30-odd miles north of New York in the Hudson Valley.

Many of her supporters, however, are trying to "persuade" members of the Electoral College, who should cast their vote in favour of Mr Trump in accordance with the outcome of his winning States' electoral vote, to "dump Trump".

Asking these same Electors to cast their vote for Mrs Clinton ("Faithless Electors") might be too much and could meet legal challenges, but if a sufficient number of them were to "abstain", likely still not enough to defeat the President-Elect, but could damage the Electoral College sufficiently so that in future, Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) would only be elected by gaining a majority of the turnout.

What annoys many Democrats and makes them clamour for system change, is the fact that Mrs Clinton clearly won the popular vote. Final figures are still being compiled but to date in percentage terms, Mrs Clinton has 47.93 per cent Mr Trump's 46.38 per cent. The remaining six per cent went to all other candidates.

There are lots of Democrats who, on perusing the tabled results from each State, are as sore and frustrated with those "other candidates" as they are with victor Trump, not because any of them managed to win a single Electoral College vote but because in closely fought marginal States, they believe these candidates, stopped Mrs Clinton from winning.

The two other candidates of note are Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party, who got 4,414,000 votes (and would get my vote) and Dr Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate who polled 1,392,000. Yet, if the votes of these two were to be divided between the winner and runner-up, Mr Trump would now lead Mrs Clinton by her current popular majority.

At present Mrs Clinton has 232 Electoral College votes to Mr Trump's 290. Mr Trump, requiring 270 delegates is the comfortable winner. The 16 votes not included in the above figures are those for Michigan where there's an unofficial attempt to overturn a slim majority – some sources say 11,600 others up to 14,000 – in favour of Donald Trump and most tables put Mr Trump's score at 306.

Michigan is due to officially declare its result on 28 November and Michigan's Secretary of State has said he does not expect the result to be overturned.

All this has not dissuaded Dr Jill Stein of the Green Party from mounting a campaign to force recounts in three marginal states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – and La Crosse WN's media service WXOW.com reported from Madison that she had raised $2.1 million by 11pm Wednesday night and increased this to $3.2 million, 10am Thursday morning!

A very determined lady (and obvious Hillary supporter) her goal is to reach $4.5 million, because she claims "...data suggests significant discrepancies in vote totals" so that:

"After a divisive and painful presidential race, in which foreign agents hacked into party databases, private email servers, and voter data bases in certain states, many Americans are wondering if our election results are reliable.

"That's why the unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified..."

The best figures I can find for the number of votes that require to be overturned so that their College votes go to Mrs Clinton, are: Wisconsin 24,000; Pennsylvania 66,000; and Michigan 13,000.

Wisconsin's Election Commission has said that Dr Stein must petition for a recount by 5pm today (Friday, 25 November) and pay for it in full, though there is apparently a live court order barring this action.

The deadline for Pennsylvania is Monday and Michigan next Wednesday but under Federal Law, all contested results must be resolved by 13 December. The clock is ticking and Mr and Mrs Trump should not be measuring the White House curtains just yet...

Oh, go on then!