Back in 2012, President-elect Donald Trump railed against the one institution that won him the U.S. election last night: the Electoral College.

As results continued to roll in following the vote, Hillary Clinton passed Trump for control of the popular vote.

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"As of 10 a.m. ET, Clinton had amassed 59,299,381 votes nationally, to Trump's 59,135,740 — a margin of 163,641 that puts Clinton on track to become the fifth U.S. presidential candidate to win the popular vote but lose the election," according to NPR.

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Luckily for Trump, the U.S. election is not decided by who wins the most votes. Instead, it is our good old friend the Electoral College, whereby state electors cast votes according to the voting mandate of each specific state. More people voted in favor of Clinton in California than voted in favor of Trump in Florida, but it's the electoral votes that matter.

This scheme, at least at one time, infuriated Trump.

In the midst of Obama's 2012 Election day win, Trump called the Electoral College a "disaster for democracy."

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The final vote tally is not yet in, and may not arrive for some days yet, so the possibility still exists that Trump can win this election without the sole help of one of his most hated parts of the American political system.

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