Santa Barbara Elector ‘Faithful’ to Clinton
For Gail Teton-Landis, one of California’s 55 electors and longtime Democratic Party activist in Santa Barbara, there never was any hope that an uprising among “faithless” voting members of the Electoral College would keep Republican President-elect Donald Trump out of the White House. Still, when Trump won the Electoral College’s Monday ballot as expected with 304 electors — he needed 270 to win — Teton-Landis’s sense of resignation was colored by disappointment. “It was somber; it was bittersweet,” she said, a few hours after all 55 California electors cast their ballots for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The proceeding, she said, was very formal, ritualistic, and somber. “We all had hoped to elect the first woman to the White House,” she said. “We all thought that’s what was going to happen.” Although Clinton beat Trump in California by 4.2 million votes — and nationwide by 2.8 million — Trump won the electoral vote on election night by 306 to 230. On Monday, Teton-Landis said California elector Christine Pelosi, daughter of Democratic Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, made a motion demanding the creation of an independent bipartisan panel to investigate the presidential hacking. “It was unanimous. There was no debate, no speeches,” said Teton-Landis. “It got everyone in the room clapping.”
Republican Senate leaders have insisted any such investigation should be conducted by standing committees and that the creation of a special committee was unwarranted. While the electors assembled inside the Capitol, about 500 anti-Trump protesters rallied outside.
