“Mr. Chairman we have seven votes for Hillary Clinton. Thank you.”
That was Connecticut State Representative Christopher Rosario, a Bridgeport Democrat, announcing the state’s Electoral College vote at a ceremony in the Senate Chamber at the Capitol in Hartford on Monday.
Rosario’s announcement that he and Connecticut’s six other presidential electors had cast their votes for Democrat Hillary Clinton did not come as a surprise. That’s because in Connecticut the tradition is to give all its seven Electoral College votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote.
The electors’ votes were signed, sealed and certified, and then sent to Congress, with copies to the secretary of the state, the National Archive and the presiding U.S. district judge in Hartford.
Before the vote, the chair of the state’s electors, State Representative Robert Godfrey, a longtime Democrat from Danbury, expressed frustration that Republican Donald Trump would emerge the winner of the national Electoral College vote despite losing the national popular vote.
“This is the first position l have ever held that I would be delighted to do away with and go to a direct election of president of the United States as we do for every other elected official in the United States of America right down to dog catchers,” said Godfrey.
In Connecticut and in New York, which also awarded its electoral votes to Clinton, protesters gathered at the state Capitols to express their concerns with the Electoral College process.
In Hartford about 50 protesters rallied outside the state Capitol building, questioning whether President-elect Donald Trump is suitable to lead the country.
In Albany 100 people gathered to protest Trump’s election.
Peter Bogdan came from New York City to stand in the sub-freezing temperatures this morning. He says the Electoral College should be abolished.
“It has no place today in the period of mass, quick communication. In the past it took weeks for an elector to come down from the states to the Capitol. That’s not the case today. It happens in a millisecond. There’s no reason for the Electoral College anymore,” Bogdan said.
