Petition to reverse US election result and stop Donald Trump being President becomes most popular in history

It has now been signed by 4.6 million people

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence arrive on December 1, 2016 at the airport before they go on to visit the Carrier air conditioning and heating company in Indianapolis, Indiana (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

A petition asking for the result of the US election to be reversed is now the most popular in the history of Change.org.

The signatories – who total 4.6 million people – call on the Electoral College to stop Donald Trump from being President, which is a theoretically possible but never-before-attempted way of altering the result of the US election. Hillary Clinton won millions more votes than Donald Trump, but Mr Trump became President-elect because of the voting system.

The petition is titled “Make Hillary Clinton President” and argues that because Ms Clinton won the popular vote she should be made President. It also argues that the President-elect is “unfit to serve”.

With 4.6 million signatures, the petition has over two million more votes than the second largest campaign on the website. That was a campaign asking for the Yulin Dog Meat Festival to be shut down, which was begun three years ago.

The petition against Mr Trump was begun just after the election on 10 November. It was started by social worker Daniel Brezenoff.

Signatures to the petition are based on the idea that it is still possible for the result of the election to be reversed. The Electoral College system requires that representatives of each state cast ballots to decide who will actually become the new President – those members of the college are supposed to vote for whoever won their state, but could theoretically change their mind.

“On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots,” the petition writes. “If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win. However, in 14 of the states in Trump’s column, they can vote for Hillary Clinton without any legal penalty if they choose.”

Since the petition has started, some legal proceedings have been launched to test the legal penalty in those other states. There has never really been any need to enforce them, since faithless electors make up only a tiny number of people, but activists are looking to encourage more people not to vote this year.

The petition itself argues that the Electoral College should change its mind because of the results of the popular vote.

“Hillary won the popular vote,” the description reads. “The only reason Trump “won” is because of the Electoral College.

“But the Electoral College can actually give the White House to either candidate. So why not use this most undemocratic of our institutions to ensure a democratic result?”

There are another 6,000 petitions related to Mr Trump on the Change.org website.