Monday's Electoral College revolt made history, even though it failed
Donald Trump officially won the presidential election on Monday, when 304 members of the Electoral College voted for him, exceeding the 270 he needed to become president. Despite the hopes and pleas of some Hillary Clinton supporters, only two electors pledged to Trump voted for someone else — Ron Paul and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, both picked by Texas electors — while five Clinton voters were "faithless." The seven defecting electors did not sway the outcome of the election, but they made history, beating the previous record of six faithless electors who voted for George Clinton over James Madison in 1808. Since 1832, no election has had more than one faithless voter, the last being in 2004.
One Clinton elector from Hawaii wrote in Bernie Sanders, three Washington State electors picked Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and another Washington faithless elector opted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American leader. Three other Clinton electors tried to vote for someone else, but the Maine elector changed his vote when he was told he was breaking state law, and voters in Colorado and Minnesota were replaced with alternates. Most of Clinton's faithless electors voted for someone else as part of a fruitless scheme to unite behind a Republican alternative to Trump. The plan would have only worked if Republican electors had joined in.
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