How Hillary Clinton could still become President instead of Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton could still win the race to the White House thanks to the US Electoral College (Reuters)
Hillary Clinton could still win the race to the White House thanks to the US Electoral College (Reuters)

Donald Trump has yet to be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, and there is still a slim chance he won't be.

Thanks to the US having a convoluted and strange election system, the American people don't actually decide who becomes President - that right belongs to the 538 members of the Electoral College.

On December 19, the College will vote for whom they want for President, and they could yet turn their backs on President-elect Trump.

The Electoral College is made up of state officials and senior party figures from the Republicans and Democrats, but if you think they'll automatically vote for who their own state chose for the White House, think again.

Members of the Electoral College have gone against the grain in the past and voted for different candidates than those they were pledged to.

These electors are labelled 'faithless electors', and there have been 157 in US political history.

Some states punish faithless electors with a fine, but in many states there is no penalty at all for an electoral voter who goes rogue.

It's possible, but highly unlikely unless President-elect Trump does something so offensive and outrageous between now and the College vote that enough electoral voters change their minds.

The other possibility of course is that President-elect Trump dies between now and December 19.

There have been 71 faithless votes in history because of a candidate's untimely death.

An online petition on change.org is asking electoral voters to vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19.

It's already received over a million signatures.

Newshub.