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Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote on Monday and secured his
election as the 45th president of the United States, as the latest –
and perhaps last – stop-Trump movement failed to gain traction in state
capitals.
A fervent push by anti-Trump forces to persuade electors
to defect had turned the normally mundane civic procedure into high
drama.
But Trump easily surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed
to win, as representatives tabbed to cast ballots in accordance with
their states’ Nov. 8 decision mostly adhered to the election results.
After all the states had voted, Trump finished with 304 votes and
Clinton had 227.
Texas put Trump over the top, despite two Republican electors casting protest votes.
Indiana
Gov. Mike Pence afterward tweeted "congratulations" to his running mate
while saying he was "honored & humbled" to be officially elected
the next vice president.
Republican National Committee Co-Chair
Sharon Day urged Trump’s detractors to stop fighting his election, now
that his victory is affirmed.
“This historic election is now
officially over and I look forward to President-elect Trump taking the
oath of office in January,” she said in a statement. “For the good of
the country, Democrats must stop their cynical attempts to undermine the
legitimacy of this election, which Donald Trump won decisively in the
Electoral College with more votes than any Republican since 1988.”
Elector
antics were few and far between throughout the day, with most the
disruptions occurring on the Democratic side. A Democratic elector in
Maine tried to vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders, but switched to Clinton
after it was ruled improper. Another who tried to vote for Sanders in
Minnesota was replaced; a Colorado elector who tried to back Ohio Gov.
John Kasich likewise was replaced. One of the biggest deviations was in
Washington state, where three electors voted for Colin Powell and one
voted for “Faith Spotted Eagle;” the remaining eight went to Clinton,
the state’s winner.
It marked the first time in four decades the
state's electors broke from the popular vote. Washington Secretary of
State Kim Wyman vowed to work with the state attorney general and charge
the four unfaithful electors with a violation of Washington state civil
law. Such violations carry a fine up to $1,000.
With Trump’s win now secured, a joint session of Congress is scheduled for Jan. 6 to certify the results.
Trump’s
clear Electoral College victory could serve to deter any further
last-ditch efforts to effectively nullify his November win and prevent
his inauguration, though the battle may shift next to his Cabinet picks.
Few expected the “faithless elector” push to imperil Trump’s victory on Monday.
Only
one Republican elector – Texas’ Chris Suprun – publicly stated he would
vote for an alternative candidate. (He backed Kasich, while another
Texas elector used his ballot to vote for former congressman Ron Paul.)
More than three dozen Republicans would have had to abandon Trump to
complicate his path to the presidency.
But GOP electors still
faced immense pressure -- with some even receiving threats -- from Trump
foes in the run-up to Monday’s Electoral College vote. Those urging
disorder in state capitals often cited Clinton’s popular-vote win, by
roughly 2.6 million votes, over Trump in November.
Celebrities
made public appeals to electors to use the arcane process to upend
Trump’s victory, as some Democratic electors tried to persuade their
Republican counterparts to defect. Reports that U.S. intelligence
officials determined Russia interfered in the election to boost Trump –
findings disputed by Trump himself – only fueled efforts to wield the
Electoral College vote as a political circuit-breaker.
As electors
met, thousands of protesters descended on state capitals Monday in one
last push to convince Trump voters to change their minds.
In
Arizona, dozens of protesters gathered outside the meeting site,
marching around the Capitol mall and carrying signs that said, "Stop
Trump." More than 200 demonstrators gathered at Pennsylvania's Capitol,
chanting, "No treason, no Trump!"
Both states, and dozens of others, cast their electoral votes for Trump anyway.
In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant dismissed attempts to sway Republican electors.
"This
idea … that we want to change the electors’ minds who have been
dedicated to Donald Trump very early in the process I think is just
misguided,” he said.
If nothing else, the furor over Monday’s
proceedings has served to re-acquaint Americans with a process that few
pay attention to every four years.
The Electoral College was
devised at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It was a compromise
between those who wanted popular elections for president and those who
wanted no public input.
The Electoral College has 538 members,
with the number allocated to each state based on how many
representatives it has in the House plus one for each senator. The
District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to
Congress has no vote in Congress.
To be elected president, the
winner must get at least half plus one -- or 270 electoral votes. Most
states give all their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins that
state's popular vote. Maine and Nebraska award them by congressional
district.
After a joint session of Congress certifies the results on Jan. 6, the next president will be sworn in on Jan. 20.
Trump
already is nearly done naming his Cabinet appointees, as he prepares
for confirmation hearings and the inauguration ceremonies, in addition
to his first 100 days agenda.
Despite the transition process being
well underway, Republican electors said they were deluged with emails,
phone calls and letters urging them not to support the billionaire
businessman in the days and weeks leading up to Monday’s proceedings.
Many of the emails were part of coordinated campaigns.
"The
letters are actually quite sad," said Lee Green, a Republican elector
from North Carolina. "They honestly believe the propaganda. They believe
our nation is being taken over by a dark and malevolent force."
Wirt
A. Yerger Jr., a Republican elector in Mississippi, said, "I have
gotten several thousand emails asking me not to vote for Trump. I threw
them all away."
Arizona elector Robert Graham told Fox News on
Saturday that the state’s 11 electors received hundreds of thousands of
emails telling them not to vote for Trump and that he’s received
information that some of the other 10 have been followed or have
received a death threat.
“It’s out of hand when you have such … a
small group of people that is pushing so hard against millions if not
hundreds of millions of people who still appreciate this whole system,”
said Graham, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. “The Electoral
College is part of the Constitution.”
