Four Washington state electors break ranks and don’t vote for Clinton

[MikeWB]

Hillary Clinton won the state's popular vote, but three of 12 members of the Electoral College voted for Colin Powell, the former secretary of state; and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American elder from South Dakota.

OLYMPIA — Only eight of 12 Democratic electors in Washington cast their votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the state in November.

In an act of symbolic protest, three electors voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and one cast a vote for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American elder from South Dakota.

It's the first time in four decades that the state's electors have broken from the popular vote for president. Washington's 12 electors met Monday afternoon in the state Capitol to complete the constitutional formality.

The hubbub around the possibility that rogue electors might deny Donald Trump the White House turned what has normally been a little-attended ceremony into a closely watched event.

Under state law, an elector can be fined $1,000 for not voting for the candidate who won the state.

In the end, Trump cruised to an electoral victory nationally by early afternoon Monday. Texas put Trump over the 270 votes needed to win, despite two Republican electors casting protest votes.

After the vote in Olympia, several electors said they hoped the attention to the event would carry forward into the future — and possibly result in the system being replaced by a national popular vote.

As Democrats, Washington's electors could not do anything to deduct from Trump's vote total. But some had hoped to ally with Republicans in other states to deny Trump the 270 electoral-vote majority he needed to formally be made president.

For vice president, the vote was eight for Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine, one for environmentalist Winona LaDuke, and one each for U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Susan Collins of Maine and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

Hundreds of protesters gathered inside the capitol rotunda and outside on the capitol steps, watched by a swarm of media.

"I am excited and I have exuberance about this process and civic engagement moving forward," said Phillip Tyler, head of the NAACP of Spokane, one of the electors.

The last time an elector broke from the popular vote in Washington was in 1976, when Mike Padden, who is currently a Republican state senator, voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford, who had won the state.