WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) — 2016 American Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has taken a lead over President-elect Donald Trump by nearly three million popular votes in final count, according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

The independent political news outlet tweeted out on Tuesday that all of the 50 U.S. states plus the Washington District of Columbia, the capital city of the United States, had certified their vote count results.

The former secretary of state garnered 65,844,610 votes and 48.2 percent, compared to Trump's 62,979,636 votes and 46.6 percent. Their gap in popular vote is 2,864,974, its data showed.

Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party Candidate Jill Stein and all write-ins altogether, took 7,804,213 popular votes and 5.7 percent.

Although Clinton captured nearly as many votes as President Barack Obama did to win in 2012, she lost the electoral college by a wide margin.

On Monday, Trump officially secured his future four-year presidency by winning 304 Electoral College votes to Clinton's 227.

Only two out of 306 Republican electors across the country cast their votes for alternatives, while five Democratic electors defected from Clinton to other options like Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders and "Faith Spotted Eagle", a native environmental activist.

A week after his historic election victory on Nov. 8, Trump tweeted: "The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!"

However, four years ago, Trump tweeted: "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy", in response to President Obama's reelection against Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.