Hillary Clinton popular vote latest: Democrat wins 2.36m more votes than Donald Trump and the lead is growing

Ms Clinton lost the election but won the popular vote. She is on course to gain a lead of more than 2.5 million over her former rival

Hillary Clinton has a lead of 2.36 million over Donald Trump in the popular count and the number is likely to grow, according to analysts.

The former secretary of state lost the electoral college and conceded her 232 electoral votes, distributed in different numbers per state, to Donald Trump’s final tally of 306 votes.

Yet her lead in the popular count is on track to smash 2.5 million, a wider margin than any of the past five candidates who won the presidential election.

If she reaches 65 million votes - currently on 64.9 million - she would be on par with Barack Obama’s 2012 victory and George W Bush’s win in 2004.

The popularity casts further doubt on the electoral college system, which has been in place since the Founding Fathers in the 18th century.

Her lead, tallied by Cook Political Report US House editor David Wasserman, is growing thanks to late counting of mail-in and absentee ballots in states like California, New York and Washington.

Michigan was the last state to announce its final result, and it went to the 70-year-old billionaire tycoon on Monday. He was swept to victory on 8 November after winning key battleground states of Florida, with 29 electors, Pennsylvania, with 20, and North Carolina, with 15 votes.

The 538 electors are convening on 19 December to rubber stamp Mr Trump’s presidency.

One elector in Texas, Art Sisneros, said he would resign his position rather than vote for the Republican, saying that he did not want to “bring dishonour to God”.

So-called “faithless electors” are usually in the minority and unlikely to overturn an election. A petition to urge them to change their vote for the Democrat has nonetheless reached 4.6 million signatures.