Popular Vote Latest Results: Amid Electoral College Vote, Clinton Leads Trump By Nearly 2.9 Million

The Electoral College began voting Monday, and barring some unforeseen, unprecedented move from the electors, it will confirm Donald Trump as the president-elect of the United States. But even as that vote takes place, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton earned some 2.9 million more total votes than Trump.

The latest count from a Cook Political Report analysis, had Clinton at 65,844,594 votes, compared to 62,979,616 for Trump. That's a difference of 2.86 million votes. In all, 48.2 percent of the electorate voted for Clinton, while 46.1 percent voted for Trump.

Interestingly, a large number of Americans seemingly remain confused or uninformed about the election results. A Washington Post poll released Sunday found 52 percent of Republicans, and 29 percent of all Americans, thought Trump won the popular vote.

In fact, Trump won the presidency through the Electoral College system, with victories in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. He earned 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232. The former secretary of state garnered the large popular vote lead through lopsided victories highly populous states such as New York and California.

The Electoral College is expected to confirm Trump's victory Monday as electors cast the votes that actually count, despite the urging of a handful of electors attempting to get enough votes to deny Trump the presidency. Such a move would send the decision to the House of Representatives, but voting early Monday suggested electors were set to award Trump the presidency.

Trump closed out his so-called thank you tour this weekend in Alabama. He was sure to praise the Electoral College he once criticized. He called it "genius."

"I never appreciated it until now, how genius it was, what they had in mind, because at the time they didn't want everybody going to Boston and New York and everything else would be forgotten," he said. "It's genius, I'm telling you, it's genius."