Electoral College Has First 4 Defectors – And They’re Not From Trump

Democratic electors in Washington state just made it harder for Hillary Clinton to pull off an upset

Donald Trump
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Four of Washington State’s 12 Democratic electors refused to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton on Monday, despite the fact that the candidate was allotted all of the state’s electoral votes last month.

Three of the electors chose to vote for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and one voted for a Sioux tribe elder who has led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to The Seattle Times. Under state law, electors can be fined $1,000 for refusing to vote for the state’s candidate.

Eight of the electors cast their vote for Clinton’s running mate and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine, while environmentalist Winona LaDuke, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Susan Collins and Senator Maria Cantwell each received one vote.

In the weeks ahead of the electoral college’s vote, anti-Trump protestors have called on the electors to block the Republican president-elect by casting their votes for someone else. But no Republican electors have defected as of Monday afternoon.

Trump won 306 of the 538 electoral votes on Election Day. Hillary Clinton won 232, meaning the Democratic defectors in Washington will do nothing to affect the outcome of the election. The Seattle Times reports that the last time an elector broke from the popular vote in Washington was in 1976, when one of the state’s votes was cast for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford.

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