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Breaking: Electoral College Chooses Donald Trump as President
The electors kept the faith:
Electoral College members across the nation voted to affirm President-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Monday, as liberal attempts to sway Republican electors to abandon Trump fizzled.
Republican electors stayed loyal to their candidate, keeping Trump well above the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to secure the nomination.
Texas’ 36 electoral votes for Trump pushed him over the edge at around 4:30 Central Time, even though two rogue electors’ defections deprived Trump of one of those votes. That gave Trump 295 total electoral votes.
The Republican-controlled Congress, a body even more unlikely to be swayed by pressure than the Electoral College, will certify the vote on Jan. 6.
Interesting sidenote:
Published in PoliticsMore Democratic electors are defecting than Republicans in the Electoral College vote so far.
Four Democratic electors in Washington state cast votes for candidates other than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who carried the state.
Democratic electors in Maine, Minnesota and Colorado have separately tried to cast votes for different candidates, but saw their ballots barred. Clinton carried all three states.
Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but has the electoral college ever been a news story before?
Excuse me while I enjoy a moment of complete satisfaction at Clinton’s thorough humiliation.
I sure don’t remember it. But it’s good to remind Hillary that she lost. She’s getting old and forgetful.
Celebrating with a glass of wine – ! Finally…
Wonder how Martin Sheen is doing right now?
You think he’s screaming about tiger blood and #winning?
It’s always been covered. I remember in ’76 when a Republican elector decided to make the point that the wrong man got the nomination and voted for Ronald Reagan.
I guess I did miss it.
Not having been born is only a halfway good excuse after all.
In ’72 a Virginia elector voted for Libertarian candidates John Hospers, the first (and to date only) electoral vote won by the LP.
Pandemonium here in the Evergreen State as four Hillary electors defect!
Ding dong, the witch is dead…
Yet another institutional failure in 2016.
The point of all these republican institutions is to prevent tragedies like this. If they’re just going to rubber stamp things, there seems to be little point in having them.
Thank God Lyndon Larouche focused his efforts on suborning school boards in Brooklyn back in the day. Anyone else sense there is going to be real mischief in the electoral college of preeminent 9-11 fakers in the medium term?
Fred, cheer up! Remember the pessimist’s credo.
If things are going to be as bad as you seem to think, you will be able to gloat it over with “I told you so’s.” If not, then you can be glad you were wrong about the consequences of a Trump presidency.
Wow, Fred, I though the Need to Know crew were neverTrump, but you make Mona sound like KellyAnn Conway. Glad I didn’t resub for the Dailv Shot – I do not need the despair. I have plenty of worries of my own
It makes this look like fake news now
I absolutely agree. Giving Ron Paul one electoral vote and Colin Powell three is a complete and utter tragedy.
Actually I believe one elector chose Faith Spotted Eagle (no, I’m not joking).
It’s not despair. And its not a sentiment I inject into TDS.
I was referring to electing a man who is clearly unfit to the presidency.
I wear an UnFitBit when I don’t run laps around Trump Tower.
#Winning
How about we replace the electors with robots? Each state will have their own robots programmed to cast the largely ceremonial vote in accordance with state procedures. Voila: No more “faithless electors.”
Introducing: Elector
While I doubt it would have made a difference if they had acted differently, trying to quash the Hamilton elector movement should be remembered as the final and absolute abandonment of the standard by those who previously comprised the #NeverTrump movement. They should be ashamed. American conservatism is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump organization.
What happens when the Russians hack into the robots?
Wodka Werewolves
So, you mean, those anchors and writers and pundits were wrong again?
They wasted hours of programming on this non-story. This is why I skip the
newspropaganda.Fred, Trump won the presidency fair and square, according to procedures and protocol long-established in this country. If the electoral college had done the unprecedented and betrayed their pledges in large enough numbers to deny Trump the win, what do you think would have happened? I’m pretty sure the resulting (justified) outrage and loss of any faith in our system by much of the electorate would be a much worse tragedy than whatever else happens during the next 4 years of a Trump presidency.
I did not think Trump fit for the presidency either (though I still voted for him because Hillary), but I think it very presumptuous to say the electors failed their duty because they chose to keep their pledges instead of valuing your or my judgment of the man’s fitness more than that of the many millions who saw things differently.
We do not yet know what a Trump presidency will bring exactly, though I think he’s assembled quite an impressive team for his cabinet and am much more optimistic than I once was. Can you really see no possible silver lining to the Trump presidency?
The most likely scenario would have been that no one got an outright majority in the Electoral College, the election was thrown to the House, which would have picked Trump anyway.
So why have an election at all if the electors can just pick whoever they want?
Also how does moving the US closer to dictatorship, which is what you get when the elites are empowered to completely disregard the will of the people, further your stated goal of increasing freedom?
I was NeverTrump before because of my principles, one of which is a belief that liberal democracy requires both halves to function. If you take the democracy away, the liberalism won’t last long, and vice versa. Contrary to what the anti-anti-Trump crowd asserts, my #1 priority is not, “Beat Trump,” but “Advance classical liberalism,” and allowing the political elites to disregard the rules agreed upon by all parties well in advance hurts that cause.