Wisconsin electors cast the state’s 10 electoral votes for President-elect Donald Trump on Monday, despite protests mounted at the Capitol by some anti-Trump voters.
The electors cast a unanimous vote for Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence shortly after noon.
“We’re just very excited to be able to represent all the hard working activists around the state who helped deliver this,” said Brad Courtney, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, who was also elected as chairperson of the electors’ meeting.
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Protesters gathered outside the Capitol in below-zero temperatures in an effort to persuade Wisconsin’s electors to not vote for President-elect Donald Trump. Laurel White/WPR
Courtney noted Wisconsin hasn’t cast its electoral votes for a Republican candidate since 1984.
“It’s been a wonderful time,” Courtney said. “It’s going to be fun to go to Washington on Jan. 20 and watch Donald J. Trump and Mike Pence be sworn in as our next president and vice president.”
The vote spurred outbursts from members of the crowd, despite the urging of elections officials at the outset of the meeting for them to behave “in the Wisconsin way.”
“We want it to be civil and respectful,” said Mike Haas, administrator of the state Elections Commission.
The crowd stayed mostly silent until the official, unanimous vote for Trump was announced.
“We’re all going to war and die because of you people,” one crowd member yelled.
“You sold out our country,” yelled another.
Several crowd members chanted, “Shame, shame!”
At least one protester was escorted from the meeting room by Capitol Police. Others left voluntarily after expressing their dissatisfaction with the vote.
Organizers said they expected between 200 and 600 protesters to gather in the Capitol on Monday to express concern with the Electoral College and Wisconsin electors’ votes for Trump.
Before noon, in below-zero temperatures, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Capitol building, chanting “Trust your conscience, dump Trump” and “Electors should protect us.”
Protesters seemed to rotate between chanting and marching outside the Capitol and warming up inside.
According to organizer Joel Besemer, the protesters’ primary goal was to convince electors to vote for a candidate other than Trump.
“We’re hoping on a miracle that we can get our electors to do the right thing,” said Besemer, an organizer with Democracy Spring, one of the advocacy groups that organized the protest. “At the very least, we are challenging a Trump mandate – he seems to think that he had a mandate in this country and that is just not the case.”
“This is the people speaking that Trump is not their president and we need to let him know that and we need to challenge him at every turn,” Besemer said.
George Suematsu drove from Platteville for the protest.
“I don’t feel that Donald Trump is fit to represent the United States,” Suematsu said. “He hasn’t made any mistakes officially yet, but I’m concerned.”
Some protestors crossed state lines to voice their concern with the president-elect.
Eleanor Mamayek and her friend, Paula Mytych, drove from Illinois, which will cast its electoral votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I decided to come to Wisconsin to alert the electors and ask them to save our country and to vote intellectually,” Mamayek said. “I’m assuming that they are intelligent people.”
When asked what concerns her about Trump, Mamayek said, “Everything … everything.”
“Donald Trump, other than all of his bad qualities of stirring up hate and misogyny and all that stuff, the one thing that worries me the most about him is his short fuse,” Mytych said. “Our lives are in grave danger, I really think so. The whole country. I’m really scared for this country.”
Mytych said she knew it would be a long shot to get the electors to change their minds, but she said she wanted it to be known “the people” didn’t support Trump.
Trump won the presidential election in Wisconsin by about 22,000 votes. After a statewide recount financed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s campaign, Trump had a net gain of about 130 votes.
Here’s a video of the crowd after 10 electoral votes cast for @realDonaldTrump. Protester led out. pic.twitter.com/IwkWyco9X9
— Laurel White (@lkwhite) December 19, 2016
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