Actually, the 2016 electoral college vote in the U.S. presidential election was:
Donald Trump 304
Hillary Clinton 227 (not 277)
Others 4
Others? You betcha. Keep reading.
As we all should know by now, the U.S. does not elect a president by popular vote. If it did, Hillary Clinton would be president. Instead, each state chooses a slate of electors who meet later in the 50 state capitals as an Electoral College that actually selects a president and vice-president.
In the Electoral College vote last December 19, for the first time since 1808, multiple faithless electors voted against their pledged qualified presidential candidate. Five Democrats rebelled in Washington and Hawaii, while two Republicans rebelled in Texas. Two Democratic electors, one in Minnesota and one in Colorado, were replaced after voting for Bernie Sanders and John Kasich, respectively. Electors in Maine conducted a second vote after one of its members voted for Sanders; the elector then voted for Clinton. Likewise, for the first time since 1896, multiple faithless electors voted against the pledged qualified vice presidential candidate.
One Clinton elector in Colorado attempted to vote for John Kasich. The single vote was ruled invalid by Colorado state law, the elector was dismissed, and an alternative elector was sworn in who voted for Clinton.
One Clinton elector in Minnesota voted for Bernie Sanders as President and Tulsi Gabbard as vice president; his votes were discarded and he was replaced by an alternate who voted for Clinton.
One Clinton elector in Maine voted for Bernie Sanders; this vote was invalidated as "improper" and the elector subsequently voted for Clinton.
Four Clinton electors in Washington did not vote for Clinton (three votes went to Colin Powell, and one to Faith Spotted Eagle).
One Trump elector in Georgia resigned before the vote rather than vote for Trump and was replaced by an alternate.
Two Trump electors in Texas did not vote for Trump (one vote went to John Kasich, one to Ron Paul); one elector did not vote for Pence and instead voted for Carly Fiorina for Vice-President; a third resigned before the vote rather than vote for Trump and was replaced by an alternate.
One Clinton elector in Hawaii voted for Bernie Sanders.
Of the faithless votes, Colin Powell and Elizabeth Warren were the only two to receive more than one; Powell received three electoral votes for President and Warren received two for Vice President. Receiving one valid electoral vote each were Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul and Faith Spotted Eagle for President, and Carly Fiorina, Susan Collins, Winona LaDuke and Maria Cantwell for Vice President. Sanders is the first Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President. LaDuke is the first Green Party member to receive an electoral vote, and Paul is the third member of the Libertarian Party to do so, following the party's presidential and vice-presidential nominees each getting one vote in 1972. It is the first election with faithless electors from more than one political party. The seven people to receive electoral votes for president were the most in a single election since 1796, and more than any other election since the enactment of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804.
And now, as radio newscaster Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.
Yours for accuracy in media,
rhymeswithplague
What I wish someone could explain is the constant reminder that Trump won the election. He is living in the White House, conducting state business, and running for RE-election. I was able to guess that he is president and I am sure most people have done the same. Is there not some better way to spend time and money>
ReplyDeleteThanks. Donald Trump is entertaining and appears to be doing the job. The alternative was too horrendous to contemplate. I was pleased when Obama won the first time but he soon became an idle useless article or POTUS.
ReplyDelete'Yours for accuracy in media,' - Here, here! I wish. It's manipulated by both sides. It's thanks to lies (fake news now being the trendy term for it) that Trump got in at all I reckon, he told many outright bald lies on social media and then ignored any responses that proved him wrong. I feel I am showing my age as I am now saying the same my mother says and I recall my Gran saying - The world's gone mad. I'm finding the idea that anyone thinks he's doing a good job one of the funniest bad jokes I've ever heard. Still, it wouldn't do for us all to be the same would it? Kindness and fair judgment simply doesn't win votes from those with purely self interest.
ReplyDeleteGood post sir, I'm slow at getting to you, but I do get here eventually! x
Ohhh! Ohhh! My brain hurts. It is all so complicated. I thought democracy was meant to be simple - One man one vote and one woman one vote too. If I were an American I would vote for Colonel Brague whose visage appears on Kentucky Fried Chicken establishments all over the world.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stats. While we're on the subject of politics, you live in Trump country, yet you didn't support Trump. Did you take heat for this fact? Do the Trump voters you know remain firm in their endorsement, and do they feel any sense of impropriety for, on the one hand, upholding "Christian values" (as I assume they do), and on the other voting for a candidate who is bullying, boastful, is the first president to publicly curse, says he has never felt the need to ask God's forgiveness, has been married three times, admits to grabbing women sexually without their permission, has declared bankruptcy repeatedly, has owned casinos, and has in every other way shown himself to be morally defunct? I've been following the Roy Moore scandal, not just his repeated sexual aggression toward children (even being banned from a mall for it), but his running his own charity (The Foundation for Moral Law no less) in the ground for financial gain, yet despite these things, Alabama's Christians are solidly behind him--why? Do you not sometimes feel that you are in the wrong religion and the wrong part of the country?
ReplyDelete