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Protesting the Electoral Vote in Harrisburg

HARRISBURG — Because Donald Trump won the popular vote here in Pennsylvania, the state’s 20 electors are Republicans and all cast their electoral vo...

HARRISBURG -- Because Donald Trump won the popular vote here in Pennsylvania, the state's 20 electors are Republicans and all cast their electoral votes for Donald Trump.

That vote took place as hundreds of anti-Trump demonstrators protested at the Capitol in Harrisburg.

The Electoral College likely never received this much attention in Pennsylvania. Neither have the 20 electors, who've been besieged with mail, email, and a capitol rotunda full of protesters -- none of which persuaded them to vote for someone other than Donald Trump.

It was the last ditch effort to stop Donald Trump's Election Day win in Pennsylvania from becoming official. Protesters circled the Capitol building in Harrisburg.

"We're sending a message at state capitols all through the country. There are people out here, and this isn't the last thing we're going to do," said one protester.

Inside, more than 100 jammed the Capitol rotunda to continue to urge the 20 Pennsylvania electors to dump Trump.

If the cries of protest could be heard on the other side of the wall in the state house chamber, they fell on deaf ears.

It took 50 minutes for the ceremonial procedure to wrap up with all 20 Republican electors voting for Trump.

"My congressional district told me, 'Trump,''' said Ash Khare, an elector from Montgomery County. "I was a Trump delegate, and I'm proud to be a Trump person."

Pennsylvania's 20 electors include Republican businesswoman Carol Sides of Williamsport, a Trump supporter who called her time as an elector, "uncomfortable." After receiving 3,000 letters and many phone calls, she told a newspaper in Harrisburg, "I did not know I would have to go through this for weeks."

The other elector from our region is Republican State Representative Tina Pickett of Towanda, who says she appreciated the importance of the process.

"I even appreciated the governor's remark that he made in the speech where he said, 'savor the walk to the ballot box because it is a big piece of history and you really have to think about that as you walk up there,'" said Rep. Pickett.

There was not a single word of dissent inside during the formal ceremony to award our state's electoral votes to Donald Trump.

Demonstrators outside the Capitol say they'll keep standing up to Trump no matter what.

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