Electoral College Vote Results 2016: More Defectors From Clinton Than Trump, Will Anti-Trumpers Give Up?

Electoral College Vote results 2016 were announced on Monday and Trump attained the required majority to become the next U.S. President. The results reveal that there were more defectors from Clinton than there were from Trump. The results also raise questions on what anti-Trump groups will do next.

Since Donald Trump won the elections in November, several activists and liberals were hoping for Electoral College to change the outcome. The Electoral College Vote Results 2016 which were announced on Monday were completely against the expectations of anti-trump groups.

More Electors Defected From Clinton

The Electoral College voting 2016 saw seven electors, the highest number ever, voting for other party’s nominee. In the past few months, there have been huge protests, rallies, and campaigns urging the Electoral College to go faithless. Although no one was expecting a change in final results, several believed Trump would lose more votes.

It turns out, five electors who had pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton voted for someone else whereas only two who were supposed to support Trump voted for other party nominees. Clinton lost most Electoral votes in Washington.

In Washington, three Electoral votes went to Colin L. Powell, and one vote went to Faith Spotted Eagle, who is a Native American leader. She lost one more vote in Hawaii to Bernie Sanders. The final Electoral College vote results 2016 for Clinton was 227 out of 232 electors who were supposed to vote for her, as reported by the New York Times.

Hillary Clinton could have lost more Electoral College votes as three more electors had declined to vote for Clinton. One of them later changed his vote in Clinton’s favor whereas other two were replaced by alternate electors who voted for Clinton.

Why Anti-Trump Groups Are Against Electoral College Voting System?

The Constitution does not require electors to vote but individual states and parties ask the electors to pledge vote for a particular candidate. For example, Washington State imposes $1,000 fine on electors who do not vote for the pledged candidate, which in this case was Clinton. Similarly, in both Minnesota and Colorado, the Electors were replaced according to the State policy as they did not wish to vote for Clinton. So essentially, the Electoral College is not an independent system as electors have to vote in agreement with the state outcomes.

Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote, and her lead was a whopping 2.86 million votes. Despite winning the popular vote, she lost the Electoral College Vote 2016 and ultimately the Presidency. As per the current system, the candidate who wins 270 Electoral College votes wins the elections. The number of electors each state represents is proportional to its population. As the final Electoral College vote results 2016 has shown, it is basically a winner-take-all system.

Bill O'Reilly: Abolishing Electoral College "All About Race" https://t.co/w0Ojw0UVG9

— THR TV News (@THRtv) December 21, 2016

Clinton supporters have stated that it is unfair that someone who has won the popular vote by the largest margin ever will not become the next U.S. President. According to the New York Times Editorial Board, the solution to this problem is National Popular Vote interstate compact. It states the following.

“A direct popular vote would treat all Americans equally, no matter where they live — including, by the way, Republicans in San Francisco and Democrats in Corpus Christi, whose votes are currently worthless.”

Should Anti-Trump Forces Accept The Reality?

Even though several experts recognize the flaw in the system, there is nothing that can be done in the present elections or to overturn the Electoral College vote results 2016. The Latest reports suggest that some anti-Trump groups are now planning to attack him over his business ties, as reported by Fox News. A group called “The Hamilton Electors” tweeted a statement, a part of which stated,

“Hamilton Electors hope this watershed moment will lay the groundwork for the emerging grassroots resistance to Trump’s agenda.”

Some Trump supporters are planning to be vigilant towards any constitutional violation by Trump while some have already shown a lot of dissent over his cabinet picks. It is worth noting that both President Obama and Hillary Clinton have urged the Democrats to give Trump a chance.

[Featured Image by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]