Tag: Donald Trump

  • 790 economists tell voters: Don’t vote for Trump

    790 economists tell voters: Don’t vote for Trump

    A report on CNNMoney, on Tuesday, revealed that America’s economists on college campuses have no love for Donald Trump.

    A letter signed by 790 economists, some who have won the Nobel Prize in economics, urged voters not to vote for Trump.

    “His statements reveal a deep ignorance of economics and an inability to listen to credible experts,” the letter reads. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter, which was signed almost entirely by college professors.

    The letter was originally signed by some 370 economists. It was then reopened for new signatures and hundreds of additional economists also put down their names.

    The economists did not endorse Hillary Clinton, but recommended that would-be Trump voters “choose a different candidate.”

    Related Post: Trump on if he’ll concede if he loses: “We’ll see what happens”

    They argue that Trump has deeply misled Americans on trade, manufacturing, immigration and public institutions critical to the credibility of the economy, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which keeps track of how many jobs the economy creates and publishes a widely-watched monthly report.

    One of Trump’s economic advisers, Peter Navarro, told the Journal the letter “is a headline, whatever.”

    Navarro, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, also told the Journal: “You shouldn’t believe economists or Nobel Prize winners on trade.” He confirmed that comment to CNNMoney, but later said that the quote was incorrect.

    Navarro added in a statement: “You don’t need a Ph.D in economics to know Trump’s plan to cut taxes, reduce regulation, increase oil, gas and clean coal production, and eliminate our trade deficit by increasing exports and reducing imports will significantly increase growth.”

    Trump has been heavily criticized for his threats to slap tariffs on Mexico and China, as well his comments about tearing up free-trade deals like NAFTA. His immigration policy to deport millions of undocumented workers has been widely lambasted by economists who say that would shrink the job market and hurt growth.

    Related Post: Topless women storm polling place where Trump was due to vote

    Clinton isn’t unanimously loved by economists either. In September, over 300 economists signed a letter arguing that her economic policies would be bad for the country. They claim that Clinton’s energy policy against fossil fuels, her tax plan and proposal to raise the federal minimum wage would slow down the economy.

    “Her outdated policy prescriptions won’t return our economy to the faster growth rates it once enjoyed,” the economists’ letter against Clinton reads.

    Those economists also did not endorse Trump.

    However, economic analysis of both candidates economic plans — from taxes to jobs to economic growth — leans towards Clinton, according to Oxford Economics, Moody’s Analytics and UPenn’s Wharton School Budget Model.

  • Clinton, Trump cast ballots in US presidential election

    Clinton, Trump cast ballots in US presidential election

    Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump joined voters across the U.S. on Tuesday in casting ballots for president in an election that brings a long and bitter campaign to a close.

    Clinton started her day by casting her vote in Chappaqua, New York, where she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have lived since he left office in 2001.

    “I know the responsibility that goes with this,” she said, as she greeted people at the polling station.

    “So many people are counting on the outcome of this election and what it means for our country, and I’ll do the best I can if I’m fortunate enough to win today.”

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has also cast his ballot in New York City at the polling station nearest his home in Trump Tower.

    The candidate arrived with his wife Melania, who also cast a ballot.

    “Everything’s very good,” he said when asked what he had heard about early returns.

    People shouted “loser” and booed the candidate from behind a barrier set up by police on the street.

    Some also shouted, “Go, Donald” and gave him a thumbs up.

    At a polling station in Williamsburg, a neighbourhood in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, Jasmin Stein said she felt somewhat tired of the divisive campaign.

    However, she said she was glad that the election cast a spotlight on underlying anxieties among Americans.

    “A lot of things have been coming to the light that I think the country feels and I kind of would rather have it out in the open than it just be in peoples’ homes,” Stein, 29 said.

    Another voter, Matt Sutton, who works in public relations, said he didn’t want to take any chances to let Trump get elected.

    “It’s amazing that I voted for the first woman president.

    “I didn’t know if I would even see that in my lifetime,” 29-year-old Sutton said.

    He said he was planning to go to Times Square in the evening to await the results.

    Jessica Quinn, 37, who brought her 8-month-old daughter, Emma, to the polls, said she got so anxious about the elections.

    She said that she volunteered to work for the Clinton campaign on Monday, making about 30 phone calls.

    “I needed to do something productive with all of my anxiety about what was happening with the election,” Quinn said.

    Both campaigns kept up the pressure until the end.

    Clinton’s campaign ticked down the minutes until the start of the polls with calls to vote and to “build bridges, not walls,” a dig at Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.

    Trump highlighted his final round of campaign stops, saying on Twitter: “Today we are going to win the great state of MICHIGAN and we are going to WIN back the White House!”

    Clinton is favoured to win based on nearly all surveys of likely voters.

    However, the race marked by ugly rhetoric and personal attacks has been surprisingly close, especially since many Americans considered Trump’s campaign little more than a novelty when it began in 2015.

    Since then, he has built a strong campaign around people who feel they have been left behind by the political system.

    Voters are also electing members of the lower chamber House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate.

    Voting continues until polling stations close in Hawaii, the state furthest to the west.

    Polls will begin closing at 6 p.m. in the Eastern Time zone, and early results are expected shortly after that.

    The winner will become the 45th U.S. president on inauguration day, Jan. 20, and will succeed Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president.

  • US election: Visualisation of early voting result

    US election: Visualisation of early voting result

    The people of the United States of America will on Tuesday night choose their next President to succeed Barack Obama, who made history as the first African-American to emerge President in the U.S.

    As Americans go to the polls, the long, unusual and often ugly 2016 presidential campaign has been about the country’s changing demographics and the shifting coalitions of the two major parties as much as about the two main candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

    Below is a visualisation of the early votes cast thus far, showing the percent cast by a given party:

    According to New York Times, in a battle of the belts, it’s Sun vs. Rust.

    The changing nature of the presidential map can be deduced from where Mrs. Clinton went on Monday. She was assured enough of her prospects for winning Florida, a state that George W. Bush won twice, to not return to the biggest battleground of them all, but she held her second event in four days in Michigan, a state no Republican has won since 1988.

    Mrs. Clinton’s aides express confidence that the results will go their way, in large part because of their optimism about Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, but they are less bullish about their prospects in Michigan and states like Iowa and Ohio. It is a striking turnabout given how rooted Democrats once were in the heavily unionized Midwest and how much they struggled in the South and parts of the West.

  • Trump wins in New Hampshire

    A trio of small towns in a remote corner of New Hampshire cast the first Election Day ballots for United States president early Tuesday, with Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton 32 to 25 in the overall count.

    The three communities’ small handful of residents voted at the stroke of midnight, in a quadrennial election ritual that goes back to the first half of the 20th century.

    Members of the media far outnumbered the eight eligible voters in Dixville Notch, nestled in New Hampshire’s Great North Woods about 30 kilometres from Canada.

    Clinton, the Democratic Party’s nominee, beat Republican Trump four votes to two in Dixville Notch.

    She also scored a 17 to 14 victory in Hart’s Location, a town with a population of about 40 people. But the real estate mogul trounced Clinton 16 votes to four in Millsfield, a few kilometers south of Dixville Notch.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it was the first time the community had held such a vote in decades. The electoral law in the New England state allows communities of fewer than 100 people to open their polls at midnight, in what’s become a proud tradition for their residents.

    The event garners headlines and curiosity each election cycle, even if it isn’t considered predictive of how residents of the rest of the small north-eastern state will vote during the daytime hours. New Hampshire has four Electoral College votes and is described as a toss-up state this election, with Trump and Clinton seen as running neck-and-neck.

     

     

  • Seven key things in U.S election

    Seven key things in U.S election

    Donald Trump is attempting to crack Hillary Clinton’s blue wall. And Clinton is hoping for a surge in Latino turnout fueled by opposition to Trump.

    The two candidates are making a last-minute dash across swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina as the 2016 presidential race enters its final hours. They’ve also gone north to Michigan and New Hampshire – two states Democrats have won in recent cycles but could flip this year.

    Here are the key states and signs to study as the night unfolds:

    Trump’s must-wins

    Most plausible paths to victory for Trump start with holding onto two battlegrounds that Mitt Romney won four years ago — North Carolina and Arizona — and flipping three states President Barack Obama carried: Florida, Ohio and Iowa.

    A loss in any of the states would severely complicate Trump’s already precarious path to 270 electoral votes. Though if Trump clawed back Pennsylvania or Michigan from the Democrats, who had won both electoral-rich states six times in a row, North Carolina would be more expendable. A win in a state like Pennsylvania or Michigan would allow Trump to offset a loss in North Carolina and still have a shot at reaching 270.

    If that doesn’t happen, holding North Carolina and Arizona, while reclaiming Florida, Ohio and Iowa from the Democrats — plus Maine’s 2nd District — would only get him to 260.

    Trump would need to tack on 10 more electoral votes somehow. New Hampshire’s four and Nevada’s six would get him there. Colorado, with nine electoral votes, Michigan with 15 and Pennsylvania with 20 are also possibilities.

    In his last 48 hours before Election Day, Trump has been pretty much everywhere, including Colorado, Michigan — even Minnesota — searching for the extra votes he needs.

    Clinton’s must-wins

    The key question for Clinton is whether her “blue wall” of Democratic-leaning states on the Great Lakes — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — will hold.

    Trump has targeted all three, but Clinton has consistently led polls in all three states. However, most voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania cast their ballots on Election Day — which means her campaign hasn’t built the early voting advantage already in place elsewhere.

    If Clinton can do that and pick up just one of North Carolina, Florida or Ohio, she’s all but guaranteed to win.

    If she can’t win one of those three states, she’ll need to hold Virginia, vote-by-mail Colorado, New Hampshire and Nevada — where Democrats have already built a hefty early voting edge.

    Does Latino turnout surge?

    If Clinton wins, her coalition will consist of women, college-educated voters and a swell of new Latino voters.

    In early voting in states like Nevada, and Florida, there’s already evidence of burgeoning Latino turnout. This is best witnessed by the over 57,000 people who voted in Nevada Friday, with pictures of long lines and extended hours at a Latino grocery store in Clark County.

    Many first-time voters, polls show, are turning out to oppose Trump. And Democrats are bullish that Latinos have been under-polled through the entire 2016 election cycle.

    For Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, this is a ghost of elections past. After the 2012 race, the RNC warned that the party needed to do more to court Latino voters. A nominee who roundly rejected that advice could be the reason the party loses a third consecutive presidential race.

    Just as Trump’s attacks on Mexican immigrants have alienated Latino voters, his attacks on women and allegations of sexual assault have helped Clinton to a large lead among female voters. Clinton’s campaign has highlighted Trump’s most derogatory remarks in TV ads aimed at moderate, suburban women — a constituency that has helped Republican nominees in years past. If she succeeds, it would limit Trump’s strengths to rural areas.

    Does Trump have a “silent majority”?

    Trump’s biggest strength is his overwhelming support from disaffected white voters — particularly men, and especially those without college degrees.

    His campaign has long argued that those voters — many of them independent or Democrats who buy into Trump’s protectionist stance on trade — will carry him on Election Day.

    For this to happen, Trump will also need core Democratic voters to stay at home, as well.

    Already, Trump appears poised to win Iowa, and has polled ahead of Clinton in Ohio. He’s hoping to win enough blue-collar Democrats in Pennsylvania or Michigan to win at least one of those states.

    Michigan, in particular, emerged as a tempting target in the campaign’s closing days — a state hard-hit by the trade deals Trump bemoans. Clinton’s campaign raced to play defense, dispatching the former secretary of state there, as well as President Barack Obama, for last-minute rallies.

    Do African-American voters show up?

    Among Democrats’ biggest concerns has been whether African-American voters — a reliably left-leaning constituency — will turn out in numbers anywhere close to their support for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

    If the answer is no, it could hobble Clinton in key states — particularly Florida and North Carolina.

    Obama is helping carry Clinton’s load with black voters. In a call to Tom Joyner’s radio show, he argued that participating in this election is just as much about him as it is about Clinton.

    “And I know that there are a lot of people in barbershops and beauty salons, you know, in the neighborhoods who are saying to themselves ‘We love Barack, we love — we especially love Michelle — and so, you know, it was exciting and now we’re not excited as much,’” he said. “You know what? I need everybody to understand that everything we’ve done is dependent on me being able to pass the baton to somebody who believes in the same things I believe in.”

    The post-Trump GOP starts now

    Since Trump clinched the GOP nomination in May, Republican Senate and House candidates have been forced to answer for everything he has said — from his attacks on a Gold Star family and an Indiana-born judge’s heritage to his rejection of conservative orthodoxy.

    As soon as the election ends, Capitol Hill Republicans — especially if they retain control of both the House and Senate — will regain power.

    The party will have to decide just what to do with Trump’s rejection of free trade, his calls for a decreased United States role overseas and his criticism of GOP congressional leaders — whether he wins or loses.

    But adopting some of Trump’s policy planks while rejecting his political style might not help much after an election driven by the candidates’ personalities.

    How the loser handles losing

    For a nation divided by a long, bitter contest, this could be the most important question of all: Will the loser concede — and how will he or she do it?

    Trump and Clinton are both historically unpopular presidential nominees. Half the country thinks Clinton is a crook, and the other half thinks Trump is a racist and misogynist.

    And Trump, in particular, has cast the election as rigged — calling into question whether ballots that are mailed in will be counted, playing up inaccurate reports of voter irregularities and claiming that voter fraud is pervasive.

    The loser will play a crucial role in legitimizing the victor — or delegitimizing the winner from the outset.

     

    Culled from CNN.

  • Trump, Clinton to vote mile apart in New York

    Trump, Clinton to vote mile apart in New York

    Rivals Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump will vote barely more than a mile apart on Tuesday in New York after sparring with each other at campaign rallies.

    “Trump will vote at Hilton Hotel in New York, not at Trump Tower and interestingly, Clinton will vote just about a mile apart at the Javits Convention Centre.

    “This is the first time it is happening in the recent history that two leading presidential candidates will vote in the city.

    “This is one of the things that make this election historic and different,” Jeff Ryer, a Republican Chieftain in the state of Virginia told a U.S. correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    A member of Senate of the state of Virginia, Frank Wagner, said the election night would be an uneasy one for both candidates.

    “What you will see is that they will vote and go to war room to monitor what happens in the states as the votes come in,” he said.

    Reports say spending election night not only in the same city, but barely more than a mile apart in midtown Manhattan, is creating unprecedented security headaches for New York City.

    “For the first time in modern memory, both major party candidates will monitor the results here in New York and will have election night parties in midtown Manhattan,’’ New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said on Monday.

    The last time two presidential candidates were from New York was in 1944 when Franklin Roosevelt won his fourth term, defeating New York Governor, Thomas Dewey, but celebrations were subdued by World War II.

    Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, live in the suburb of Chappaqua, where they moved in 1999 so that she could run for U.S. Senate. 

    Trump, on the other hand, lives in a penthouse condominium atop the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

    The election night jitters come in the midst of a heightened terrorism alert as a bomb that exploded in the Chelsea neighbourhood in mid-September injured 29 people.

    Federal officials have said they have received intelligence warnings of a terrorist threat from the Al Qaeda militant group and Islamic State, which has also called on its supporters to attack election targets.

    Police officials said they would have more than 5,000 police officers out on election night, uniformed and plain-clothed, as well as bomb-sniffing dogs, and what they called “long gun trained” special forces.

    Up until now, the largest deployment of security in New York City was during Pope Francis’ visit last year, which coincided with the UN General Assembly, attended by President Barak Obama and 170 other world leaders.

    Aside from terrorism, the polarising presidential election has elicited strong, occasionally destructive passions.

    High-rise buildings in Manhattan bearing the Trump name have been pelted with eggs repeatedly.

    In Staten Island, the borough where Trump is most popular, a gigantic sign erected on the lawn of a supporter was set on fire in August.

    Besides the competing election night parties, the campaign has generated particular passion and concern.

    Huge crowds are expected at Times square, where people often watch election results in much the same way that they gather on New Year’s Eve.

    Another key location is the 58-story Trump Tower, which has become the epicentre for protests for and against Trump’s candidacy.

    On Sunday, competing crowds tried to drown each other out under the gold marquee of the building as police struggled to keep the sidewalks clear.

    Clinton appears to be planning the larger, more lavish party at the sprawling Javits Centre, which occupies a city block along the Hudson River and can accommodate as many as 85,000 people.

    Her campaign also received a permit for a fireworks display over the river, but the plan has been called off, according to a police official, who said he did not know the reason.

    According to the New York Post, if Clinton wins there will be an after-party at the Peninsula Hotel, just one block away from Trump Tower.

    Heavy security was already in place over the weekend at the Javits Center and television vans with satellite dishes were parked out front.

    On Sunday, the scene was quieter in front of the Hilton, where the only evidence of an impending election event was a sign that read “No Parking on Tuesday”.

    Tuesday’s historic U.S. elections will open at 6 a.m. (noon Nigerian time) and end at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. Wednesday Nigerian time), the Department of Elections, State of Virginia, said.

  • Voters will choose “the kind of country we want” – Clinton

    Voters will choose “the kind of country we want” – Clinton

    Hillary Clinton tells supporters at her final campaign event that “the kind of country we want” will be on Tuesday’s presidential ballot,’’ she said at a midnight rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

    “It is not just my name or Donald Trump’s name on the ballot; it is the kind of country we want. Let us go out and prove that love trumps hate,’’ Clinton said, repeating a line she has used often on the campaign trail.

    Clinton was joined in the key swing state by her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea.

    Pop star Lady Gaga performed ahead of Clinton’s address, and exclaimed at the crowd: “Hillary Clinton is made of steel!’’ and “Hillary Clinton is unstoppable!’’

    [news_box style=”2″ display=”tag” link_target=”_blank” tag=”Hillary Clinton” count=”6″ show_more=”on”]

  • Historic U.S. polls open noon Nigerian time

    Historic U.S. polls open noon Nigerian time

    Tuesday’s historic U.S. elections will open at 6 a.m. (noon Nigerian time) and end at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. Wednesday Nigerian time), the Department of Elections, State of Virginia, said.

    The Commissioner, Mr Edgardo Cortes, told the correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the U.S. that the elections include the presidential and congressional, while other states also have local elections.

    No fewer than 20 states are also expected to elect governorship candidates in Tuesday’s polls seen by many as the most unusual and most unpredictable in recent history.

    NAN, however, reports that voters in a New Hampshire hamlet, Dixville Notch kicked off voting and residents of the hamlet cast their votes at midnight.

    Out of the six votes cast, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump four votes to two, while Libertarian Gary Johnson received one vote, and Mitt Romney received a surprise write-in ballot, according to USA Today.

    A New Hampshire law allows communities with fewer than 100 voters to open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.

    Cortes said the results of all the elections would be online for anyone to see and use before the end of Tuesday.

    “We open the results online and anyone can see and use it. There is no press conference or any official to announce the result and declare any candidate the winner.

    “We update our website once every 10 minutes and you can go online to get it,” he said.

    The elections commissioner explained that elections results were expected to be posted online as soon as they were transmitted from the election districts.

    Cortes, however, said that all results that would be posted online would remain provisional until the electoral board in each of the 50 states meets on Nov. 19, 2016 to certify the results.

    According to him, the provisional results are usually not significantly different from the certified results.

    In the unlikely event that a candidate alleged rigging, the commissioner said that “a candidate does not head to the tribunal but petitions the State Congress’’.

    Cortes, however, said that allegations of rigging had never happened in the history that he remembered.

    “Case of rigging has never happened and it does not come up in our electoral system because it has been tested and it is a professional-run process and we don’t run into those issues.”

    He said electoral officials, who are members of Republican and Democratic parties appointed by judges at the local level and by the state governor at the state level, cross-checked the figures.

    According to him, cross-checking the ballots and the tally with the figures usually take one week to ensure that any mistake is corrected.

    Cortes also ruled out fears of hacking of the system, saying that it is not internet-transmitted and could not be hacked into.

    NAN reports that about 200 million Americans are expected to vote in a heated election that has two leading presidential candidates, Democratic Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

    The U.S. president is elected by Electoral College made up of 538 electors as against popular vote and to be elected president, a candidate must win 50 per cent plus one (51 per cent) electoral vote.

    Each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, has a certain amount of Electoral College votes to award a candidate, based on the number of members of Congress it has.

  • Today is our independence day – Trump

    Today is our independence day – Trump

    Donald Trump has told supporters at his presidential campaign’s final rally that the United States is just “hours away from a once-in-a-lifetime change.’’

    “Today is our independence day,’’ the Republican candidate said in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a state that has been solidly Democratic for decades.

    Report says Trump sees an opportunity among Michigan white working class voters who have been hurt by the decline of the auto industry.

    Trump added that his administration would stop the jobs from leaving America and would also stop the jobs from leaving Michigan.

    “We are finally going to close the history books on the Clintons, their lives, their schemes, their corruptions,” he said of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

  • Trump, Clinton make last pitches hours before polls open

    Trump, Clinton make last pitches hours before polls open

    Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump campaigned into the early hours of Tuesday in a last pitch to U.S. voters as the final minutes of this presidential campaign tick away.

    The focus of the final rallies was on the swing states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania which hold the keys to the presidency.

    A year and a half after announcing her candidacy for president, Clinton is favoured by pollsters to win the White House on Tuesday.

    “It is not just my name or Donald Trump’s name on the ballot, it’s the kind of country we want,’’ she said at the midnight rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was joined by her family and pop star Lady Gaga.

    Speaking at his last campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a state where Trump hoped to convince white working class voters, he told the supporters: “Today is our independence day.’’

    “We are finally going to close the history books on the Clintons, their lives, their schemes, their corruptions,’’ he said.

    Earlier Clinton was in Philadelphia, the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, where her party convened in July to nominate her.

    At an outdoor rally alongside President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, she urged people to turn out Tuesday and vote for her.

    “Let us show tomorrow there will be no question about the outcome of this election,’’ she said.

    Clinton pledged to be a president for all Americans, not just those who support her and spoke of the need to “bridge the divide” after the election.

    The last day of campaigning before the election wrapped up a political roller coaster that featured months of hostility.

    It, however, include accusations against Trump over his treatment of women and against Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

    Trump declared at an appearance in Florida that he would win a slew of swing states as well as long-time Democratic strongholds, like Michigan and Minnesota.

    “It is time to reject the media and liberal elite that has bled our country dry. It is finally time for us to fight for America,’’ Trump said.

    Both candidates also made direct appeals to voters in unusually long two-minute television ads scheduled to run during prime time evening television programming.

    Speaking directly to the camera, Clinton vowed to work her heart out as president and to make things better for you and your family.

    “Tonight I am asking for your vote, and tomorrow let’s make history together,’’ Clinton said, who would be the U.S. first woman president if she defeats Trump on Tuesday.

    Trump, in his ad, pledges to take back the country for them, asserting that the government is a failed and corrupt political establishment.

    He said he wanted to replace the establishment with a new government controlled by the American people.

    Obama also criss-crossed the country for Clinton, including shoring up support in Michigan, a traditional Democratic stronghold that Trump hoped to nab.

    The president saw the election in part as a vote on his legacy, declaring all that progress goes down the drain if they do not win tomorrow and calling Trump “uniquely unqualified” to be president.

    The race has tightened in recent days, but Clinton is still considered the favourite, with more paths to the 270 out of 538 Electoral College votes needed to win.

    She held a slim 2-percentage-point lead in an average of national opinion surveys.

    Meanwhile the race is also narrow in the battleground states, but she would need to win fewer of those states than Trump to triumph.

    The ultimate winner would be determined based on so-called Electoral College votes awarded to the winner of each state, rather than to the most popular candidate nationwide.