Donald Trump Wins Electoral College Vote, Will Be President of the United States

Despite a last ditch effort by concerned citizens and Federalists, Donald J. Trump won the Electoral College vote and with it, the U.S. presidency.

Yes, Trump was elected president in November, but the Electoral College had not formalized that victory until Monday, and not without protests.

The president-elect ultimately won easily, racking up the 270 electoral votes needed to send him to the White House and then some.

Any talk of the Electoral College stopping Trump, as the framers of the system itself made possible as a failsafe, was a moot point.

Interest in the normally mundane, archaic process spiked this year after Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8 million.

And also because … well, it’s Donald Trump.

In the end, the brash reality star and businessman secured 304 electoral votes – just two fewer than he earned in the November election.

He let people know it, too, as only he can …

Ridiculous tweets aside … so much for the Hamilton Electors‘ efforts to deny him 270 and whispers that as many as 20 electors might defect.

Not only did it not happen, but more electors tried to defect from Clinton than from Trump, by a count of 7-2, according to media reports.

Three Democratic electors in Maine, Minnesota, and Colorado tried to vote for other candidates than the former Secretary of State.

Electors in both Maine and Minnesota attempted to cast a ballot for Bernie Sanders, while a Colorado elector tried to write in John Kasich.

In Washington, a state where Clinton prevailed by double digits a month ago, she received just eight of the state’s 12 electoral votes.

Colin Powell received three and Native American tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle received one as part of an effort to protest Trump.

Yes, that was actually a thing that occurred this afternoon.

All of these faithless electors’ votes, however, were disallowed because of state rules binding them to the statewide popular vote winner.

So beyond a fun read for us, that was the end of that.

Despite a deluge of anti-Trump protesters descending on state capitols nationwide, nearly every Republican elector voted as expected.

Only one GOP elector, Christopher Suprun of Texas, pledged not to vote for Trump despite his state heavily favoring the future president.

One other Texas elector also abandoned Trump today.

The 538 members of the Electoral College met in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Monday. Congress will certify the results on January 6.

No, there is no chance of stopping him then, either.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as President on January 20, a day many have already circled on their calendars as the End of Days.

Kidding. 

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Hamilton Electors: Group Secures 20 of 37 Electoral Votes Needed to Reject Trump?

By now, you’re probably aware of the movement within the Electoral College to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the 45th President of the United States on January 20.

But in case you’ve spent the past five weeks unable to hear any media reports over the sound of your own weeping, allow us to bring you up to speed on the last sliver of hope for Democrats and moderate Republicans.

As we reported last week, it’s beginning to look as though there’s a real chance that Trump can be stopped by faithless electors.

Republican elector Christopher Suprun has vowed to vote against Trump, and he’s encouraged others to follow his lead.

One Florida elector has decided to step down rather than cast a vote for Trump, but he’ll almost certainly be replaced by someone willing to toe the party line.

So that means the 36 more Republican electors would need to defect in order to prevent Trump from being appointed America’s next president.

But the Hamilton Electors (so named for the Founding Father’s Federalist Paper No. 68, from which they draw their inspiration) aren’t losing hope for two very important reasons:

For one thing, there are reports of a new strategy, wherein Democratic electors would choose a suitable Republican politician (Mitt Romney and John Kasich seem to be the front-runners) in hopes of encouraging their GOP counterparts to follow suit.

Additionally, rumblings from within the EC are offering hope to electors who may have been on the fence due to concerns that their dissent would be fruitless.

“Obviously, whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same,” Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig tells Politico. 

“We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote.”

Lessig – who has been offering free legal counsel to potential faithless electors – says he believes at least 20 electors are planning to defect, and that the Hamilton movement will likely have a snowball effect, picking up more supporters as it grows in size.

“[Electors] are looking at is the best chance we have of stopping Trump than at any other point during this process,” Lessig says.

The RNC maintains that Suprun is the only faithless elector that they are aware of, and Salon reported Tuesday that potential Hamilton Electors have been threatened with political reprisal.

The Electoral College results won’t be known until December 19, but whatever the outcome, this is the first time in modern history that the EC’s final tally is considered anything less that a sure thing – a fact that should remind Trump of how much work he has to do if he’s genuine about his professed desire to re-unify a divided nation.

View Slideshow: 19 Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said While Running for President

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Donald Trump: Electoral College Voters to Block President-Elect From White House?

In the two weeks since Donald Trump was elected president, the reality television star-turned political neophyte has done little to assure the millions who are concerned about his temperamental instability or his impractical and incendiary campaign promises that he is in fact prepared to assume the highest office in American politics.

In fact, the only time Trump made the slightest effort to convince those who didn’t vote for him that he still has their best interests at heart was during an interview with 60 Minutes,in which he half-heartedly called for his more extremist followers to stop engaging in race-based intimidation.

Other than that, Trump has shown little to know concern with regard to hate crimes committed in his name; he appointed a man with ties to the White Nationalist movement as his chief strategist; and he’s engaged in petty online feuds with the casts of SNL and Hamilton, despite the fact that his thin-skinned inability to withstand criticism has frequently led to doubts about his ability to lead.

On top of all that, his administration is still grappling with several disconcerting legal matters, such as Trump’s recent settlement of a $ 25 million fraud suit (despite promises to fight the charges in court); his charitable foundation’s admission of unethical and possibly illegal self-dealing in a 2015 tax filing; and concerns that Trump is already in violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.

Candidate Trump promised Americans a more “presidential” Trump in the event that he should win the election.

With less than two months remaining until Inauguration Day, he has yet to deliver.

Now, an unexpected group of powerful protesters is making a last-ditch attempt to block Trump from assuming office.

While their efforts may prove too little, too late, they may also save future generations from demagogues seeking to con their way into public office.

According to the New York Post, at least six Democrats on the Electoral College are prepared to serve as “faithless electors” and abandon Hillary Clinton in order to vote for Republican candidates other than Trump.

There hope is that GOP electors will follow suit, thus costing Trump the 270 votes he needs to secure the White House, and sending the decision of who will be our next president to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

As you’re probably, aware Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 1.7 million votes, with several million more yet to be counted, most of them in Democratic strongholds, such as California.

The Democratic electors looking to block Trump have embarked on a quixotic mission, as it seems highly unlikely that they’ll be able to convince 37 of their GOP counterparts to jump ship and send the nation into an even worse state of political upheaval.

However, their efforts may bring attention to the problematic nature of the Electoral College, eventually leading to crucial reforms or even its abolishment.

“Reform going forward has a better chance of succeeding than this effort,” Kermit Roosevelt, a professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School, told The Post.

“Most people do think if you get more votes you should win the election.”

View Slideshow: Donald Trump Wins Presidency, Twitter Reacts

President-elect Trump has yet to respond to news of this latest effort to block him from office.

We imagine he’ll eventually share his views in a terse, 140-character statement to the American people.

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