Donald Trump Seals Electoral College Victory, Officially Becomes 45th US President

Donald Trump officially wins the election after the Electoral College voted for him yesterday. Via ZeroHedge

It’s finally over: Donald Trump has secured 304 Electoral Votes following the Texas vote (with 2 faithless electors), officially securing the presidency of the United States.  Of course, the now official President-Elect Trump took to twitter to confirm the victory:

Donald J. Trump on Twitter

We did it! Thank you to all of my great supporters, we just officially won the election (despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media).

Texas’ 36 electoral votes for Trump pushed him over the edge at around 4:30 Central Time, even though two rogue electors’ defections deprived Trump of one of those votes. That gave Trump 304 total electoral votes.

A quick recap of the day’s events from the WSJ:

Members of the Electoral College meeting in state capitals across the country on Monday confirmed President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, ending a last-ditch campaign to deny him the presidency. Mr. Trump amassed at least 270 electoral votes on Monday afternoon—enough to officially become the president-elect over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, according to a tally of votes by the Associated Press. 

Typically just a formality, this year’s Electoral College vote attracted an outsize amount of attention after a group of mostly Democratic electors made a late push to block Mr. Trump’s path to the White House. They argued the Electoral College had a constitutional duty to act independently of the will of the voters in extraordinary circumstances. Protesters gathered in several state capitols across the country to encourage electors to reject Mr. Trump. 

Four Democratic electors in Washington state broke ranks—with three casting ballots for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and one for Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle. In the vice presidential vote, the Washington vote was even more unusual, with electors casting votes for a trio of female U.S. senators: Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Susan Collins of Maine. Another elector cast a ballot for Winona LaDuke, an environmental activist. 

Several other attempts by electors to cast ballots failed. The Associated Press reported that attempts by Democratic electors in Colorado and Maine to vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders failed. In Maine, the elector was ordered to vote again, while in Colorado an elector was replaced.

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