Electoral College meets amid effort to deny Trump presidency
Published 10:40 am Monday, December 19, 2016
WASHINGTON — And you thought Election Day was in November.
Electors are set to gather in every state on Monday to formally elect Donald Trump president even as anti-Trump forces try one last time to deny him the White House.
Protesters gathered at some state capitals, but they are unlikely to persuade the Electoral College to dump Trump. An Associated Press survey of electors found very little appetite to vote for alternative candidates.
More than 200 demonstrators were on the steps of Pennsylvania’s Capitol, waving signs and chanting in 25-degree weather.
Demonstrators chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” and “No treason, no Trump!”
Several dozen people gathered outside South Carolina’s statehouse Monday morning, waving signs with messages imploring electors not to back the president-elect.
Vermont was the first state to report the results of its vote. As expected, all three electors voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Republican electors say they have been deluged with emails, phone calls and letters urging them not to support Trump. Many of the emails are part of coordinated campaigns.
“The letters are actually quite sad,” said Lee Green, a Republican elector from North Carolina. “They are generally freaked out. 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.”
A joint session of Congress is scheduled for Jan. 6 to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate. Once the result is certified, the winner — likely Trump — will be sworn in on Jan. 20.