On November 8, 2016, U.S. citizens went to the polls to elect President Barack Obama's predecessor.
The choice – between Hillary Rodham Clinton, an experienced government policymaker with 30 years experience and Donald J. Trump, a real estate developer, business tycoon and reality show host – seemed clear.
However, by the end of the night, the results did not support what most political pundits and pollsters had predicted.
- First, while final tallies won't be available until several weeks after the election, the United States Election Project estimates that nearly half of the registered voters did not cast a vote for a president in this election.
- As predicted, Hillary Clinton won the majority of the popular vote. But she won by a much narrower margin than anticipated – 60,981,118 (48%) to Trump's 60,350,241 (47%) votes. Update 12/9/2016: Clinton won the popular vote with 65,432,202 votes (48.2%) to Trump's 62,793,872 votes (46.3%)
- Donald Trump's win of the majority of the Electoral College was not anticipated. Americans do not directly elect the president and vice president. Instead, the U.S. Constitution lays out a plan whereby "electors" are chosen. These electors pledge beforehand to vote for the candidate of a particular party. Each state gets to choose as many electors as the combined total of the number of U.S. senators and representatives to which the state is entitled. The electors that a state chooses have pledged to vote for the candidate who ends up getting the most votes in that state - the exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which have slightly more complex rules for choosing their state's electors.
After all the states reported in, the 2016 election became historic not for electing its first woman president but for electing a businessman with no previous government experience.
While America was casting their ballots, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was announcing the demonetization of the 500 and 1000 rupee note in India to crack down on corruption and terrorism. Those with these bills had less than 24 hours to turn their bills into money in bank accounts or risk having this money turned into worthless pieces of paper.
So, as the election results dragged past midnight into the early hours of November 9 in America, Indians woke up to a new monetary policy at home and the unforeseen result of a U.S. election certain to have repercussions around the world.
Here is a collection of tweets from Bollywood directors, actors, writers and musicians leading up to and after the election, following some U.S. coverage of a Bollywood-themed (and somewhat controversial) "Hindus for Trump" rally held in New Jersey in mid-October.
Mouseover the photos to see the tweet text.
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