Well, it’s all over. Donald J. Trump has officially won the 2016 election, nabbing 304 electoral votes. Today, Democratic and Republican electors ventured to their respective state capitals and cast their ballots to make the 2016 election official. The Republican House will verify the results in January, but it’s done. Trump will become the 45th president of the United States on January 20. There were rumors of defections or maneuvers among electors to lobby enough Republican electors to break from Trump. Attorney and brief 2016 Democratic candidate Lawrence Lessig said that 20 Trump electors could flip. In the end, more Clinton electors bolted from her than Republican ones abandoning Trump (via The Hill):
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.
Ahead of the Electoral College vote, the focus was on whether any voters would defect from casting ballots for Republican Donald Trump.
That didn’t happen. But two Republican electors in Texas chose alternatives to Trump. One, who had said weeks earlier he would switch is vote, chose Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich. The other chose former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul.
Trump sealed his victory Monday evening when Texas’ 36 electoral votes pushed him over the edge of 270 with 304 votes.
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One Maine elector expressed interest in going rogue by voting for Bernie Sanders instead, but was told he could not and voted for Clinton.
Christine touched upon this earlier, but one Democratic elector in Washington State voted for “faith spotted eagle” instead of Clinton.
This pie-in-the-sky effort to block Trump was loaded with problems, namely how Trump electors would never leave the man. Second, 29 states have binding election laws in which the votes of the Electoral College go to the statewide winner. Two Colorado electors filed a lawsuit to have these rules tossed. Two Colorado-based judges rejected it; one of them being a federal judge nominated by President Bill Clinton. This legal shutdown pretty much shut down the lobbying of Republican electors for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who discouraged this course of action. Electors who go against the statewide winner in states that have these binding laws are usually replaced and could face legal charges. So, the whole exercise is moot to begin with.
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To make matters even more sad, Hollywood liberals, the people whose unbridled snobbery and elitism contributed to Clinton’s defeat, cut a video pleading with Republican electors to vote their conscience and block Trump. Yeah, talk about bringing an arsonist to put out a fire. The Right already can’t stand the Hollywood Left—and rightfully so. You think a video with them pleading with GOP electors, saying they stand with them, is going to change their minds? And you wonder why you guys lost in 2016. Middle America doesn’t connect with you and they really don’t like you. For goodness sake, your gal called Trump supporters "deplorable."
A shaky hold on the Obama coalition, more of your electors bolting from you than your opponent's, epic losses in Congress, and near destruction at the state and local level—I think the Democratic Party is going to have a long stay in the wilderness, unless the GOP helps them out of it by royally screwing up after January 20.
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