Trump revolt goes nowhere as Clinton loses more electoral votes

ajc.com

Credit: Jamie Dupree

Credit: Jamie Dupree

While demonstrators made their voices heard at Electoral College gatherings all across the country, their plea to individual electors to rebel and drop Donald Trump went absolutely nowhere, as Hillary Clinton was actually the candidate who had more electors refuse to vote for her, with the final outcome moving President-Elect Trump one step closer to the White House.

The biggest group of rogue electors was in Washington State, where three of them cast votes for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and one voted for a native American environmental activist named Faith Spotted Eagle, instead of Clinton.

Washington State also cast four electoral votes for someone other than Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine.

Also not voting for Clinton was one elector in Hawaii; that vote instead went to Bernie Sanders, meaning Clinton lost five Electoral Votes.

Overall, there were electors in five different states who tried not to vote for Clinton - in Hawaii, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington State.

Laws on the books in Colorado and Minnesota did not allow electors there to switch their vote away from Clinton; instead the two electors were replaced with someone who followed the vote outcome from those states.

In Maine, one Clinton delegate tried to vote for Bernie Sanders, but that was ruled out of order and not allowed.

After listening to repeated calls for Trump backers to throw the election in the House of Representatives, GOP critics of Clinton were chortling at the turn of events.

It was not the outcome that opponents of Mr. Trump had envisioned in recent weeks, as they desperately tried to convince electors to abandon the President-Elect.

In many states, there were protesters on hand, sometimes in the actual room where the voting took place, holdings signs that included "Unpresidented," "Grab Him in the Vote," and "Don't Let Putin Win!"

Some chanted, some yelled, some stayed silent - others bitterly denounced the outcome, like this woman in Wisconsin, who screamed at the electors, "You don't deserve to be in America!"

In Pennsylvania, people shouted "Shame!" from the galleries as the vote was announced; the chair of the proceedings dryly noted that the objection should be placed in the record.

While Clinton electors were the ones making more noise, supporters of Mr. Trump stuck with him through the day of meetings in state capitals all around the nation.

The state that put Trump over the top was Texas, which has developed into a reliable Republican stronghold for the GOP in Congress.

But - there were two Republican electors from the Lone Star State who refused to vote for Trump - one voted for former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the other for Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.

As the vote was announced, you could hear demonstrators in the background, just part of the scene on Monday, as the Electoral College signed off on the election win of President-Elect Donald Trump.