Hillary Clinton's lead in popular vote nears 2m

As the Hillary Clinton campaign is being urged by scientists to recount vote totals in several states, the defeated democratic presidential candidate Clinton's lead in popular vote is now nearing 2 million.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Clinton leads Trump by 1.82 million votes, 63,964,956 to 62,139,188, according to preliminary figures, reports CNN.

Clinton lost the Electoral College solidly, and the climbing popular vote spread doesn't change anything about who will hold power in Washington, according to CNN.

But some Clinton aides and allies have pointed to the gap as a reason to doubt any mandate that President-elect Donald Trump may draw from his victory on Election Day.

Clinton's loss on November 8 was largely due to underperfomance in a trio of Rust Belt states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the news portal reports.

Trump won Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and Michigan remains too close to call, more than two weeks after Election Day.

But a group of scientists are now pressuring the Clinton campaign to challenge those election results and call for a recount, sensing irregularities and possible hackings of vote totals.

Trump, who once criticized the Electoral College as undemocratic, now salutes it as having a "certain genius."

"We actually went to about 22 states, whereas if you're going for popular vote, you'd probably go to four, or three, it could be three," Trump told The New York Times on Tuesday. "You wouldn't leave New York. You'd stay in New York and you'd stay in California."

Source: CNN