When will Hillary Clinton concede? (Getty)
According to the latest election projections, Donald Trump has won the presidential election and will be President of the United States. The race shocked everyone, since Clinton was favored to win in polls earlier in the day. As of the time of publication, Trump has 286 electoral votes to Clinton’s 215. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. Clinton didn’t concede or give a speech at her election night party. But according to NBC, she later called Trump and conceded over the phone.
Here’s what you need to know.
Kelly O’Donnell of NBC announced on Twitter, around 2:30 a.m. Eastern, that a source told her Clinton had called Trump and conceded over the phone:
BREAKING: SOURCE TELLS ME CLINTON HAS CONCEDED ON PHONE WITH TRUMP
This came as a shock to many Clinton supporters. She hadn’t made any public statements on election night since the polls closed. During a huge election night party, Clinton never made an appearance. Instead, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign manager, came out and addressed the crowd, saying that everyone should go home. Podesta announced that they wouldn’t be saying anything else tonight. “Every vote counts,” he told the crowd, announcing that they would wait until until every vote was counted before making any announcements. Here’s a video of Podesta’s announcement:
Podesta’s announcement fueled speculation that Clinton might have been waiting for final vote counts. Clinton and Trump were very close in the polls in some states. And if Clinton hadn’t conceded that night, it wouldn’t have been entirely unheard of. In 2004, John Kerry didn’t concede the presidential election on the night of the election. He didn’t concede until the next morning.
The race was so close that despite most news organizations calling the election, NBC still hadn’t called three main states as around 2 a.m. Eastern: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. NBC said it was waiting to hear about absentee votes before calling those states. If Clinton were to win all three of these states, she would win the election.
In addition, there were still provisional ballots that might come into play. Pennsylvania was incredibly close, for example, and provisional ballots might make a difference there. Trump was at 49 percent with 2,896,728 votes in Pennsylvania, and Clinton was at 48 percent with 2,820,894 votes. NBC reported that between provisional ballots and extraneous ballots, they didn’t feel comfortable calling Pennsylvania that night. However, provisionals could take a while to count. Provisional ballots are given out if a voter doesn’t appear qualified to vote, such as if he or she is at the wrong location, isn’t showing up in the records, or doesn’t have the proper ID. Typically, provisional ballots are counted if their credentials are confirmed later. Similar situations may exist in a couple other key states also.
So, essentially, a few factors could have prompted Clinton to wait. But in the end, despite not making an announcement at her campaign party, she did call Trump on the phone and concede, NBC reported.
