Hillary Clinton lost more Electoral College votes than Donald Trump thanks to Bernie Bros
Bernie Bros strike again!
Anti-Donald Trump forces hoped the Electoral College would overturn the election results on Monday when electors met in their respective state capitals across the country. But as it turned out, more faithless electors actually defected from Hillary Clinton than the president-elect.
As of press time, seven Democratic electors attempted to vote for a candidate other than Clinton. Four — all from Washington State — were successful, while three others had their plans foiled.
Almost all the defections came from activists who supported the Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.
It was an unexpected turn of events after anti-Trump Democrats placed their faith in the Electoral College in a last-ditch effort to see anyone other than Trump win the White House.
Anti-Trump forces needed to get 37 Republican electors to defect from Trump in order to deny him the 270 votes he needed for victory. Instead, two Republicans defected — one toward Ohio governor John Kasich and one to former Texas Rep. Ron Paul. And so the Never Trumpers went down in flames.
In Washington State — where Clinton defeated Trump by more than 15 points — one elector voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American activist who protested against the Dakota Access Pipeline. That vote came from Robert Satiacum, a Sanders supporter who called Clinton a "clown," "rat" and a "criminal," in an October interview with Politico.
Three other Washington State electors voted for Colin Powell, the Republican former Secretary of State who, ironically, helped push for the Iraq War and used a private email during his time at the State Department — two issues Sanders backers demonized Clinton for.
In Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, three Sanders-supporting Democratic electors attempted to vote for candidates other than Clinton, but were either replaced as electors or forced to revote and cast their ballot for Clinton.
In Colorado, the rogue elector who attempted to vote against Clinton was Michael Baca, a Sanders supporter who helped launch the Hamilton Electors — a group of electors who hoped to deny Trump an Electoral College win.
In Maine, Democratic elector David Bright initially voted for Sanders.
His vote was later ruled improper, and he was forced to vote again and cast his ballot for Clinton.
Yet another Sanders supporter from Minnesota, Muhammad Abdurrahman, also attempted to cast his ballot for Sanders and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for vice president.
But Abdurrahman, who was a Sanders delegate at the Democratic National Convention in July, was forced to step down as an elector and was replaced by an elector who voted for Clinton, as the results of Minnesota's statewide vote dictated.
The fact that more electors refused to carry out their duty to vote for Clinton than Trump electors is a bizarre twist of events in a campaign that was filled with bizarre events.
And while the defections did not accomplish what anti-Trump forces had hoped, they do provide fodder for those hoping to abolish the Electoral College.
For example it's possible that the four electors in Washington State — at least one of whom had planned to vote against Clinton even before the post-election effort to stop Trump from winning the Electoral began — could have thrown the election had Clinton won the Electoral College by a slim margin.
Even Sanders himself, whose supporters defected from Clinton, called for the Electoral College to be abolished.
"Trump received 2.5 million fewer votes than Clinton, yet he'll soon be president. Clearly, in a democratic society, this shouldn't happen," Sanders tweeted.
