Electoral voters
Protests planned in Madison today
Wisconsin’s presidential electors head to the state’s Capitol to cast their ballots.
Madison — Wisconsin’s 10 members of the Electoral College will meet on Monday to cast their votes for Presidentelect Donald Trump.
Protests and national media are planning to show up for the voting at the state Capitol on Monday, but the event may be anticlimactic.
Pat Garrett, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said that the party has checked with the 10 electors it helped pick and is confident that they will all vote for Trump as expected.
That’s far from surprising, as they’re all GOP stalwarts, including state party Chairman Brad Courtney, Republican National Committee members Steve King and Mary Buestrin and state Sen.-elect Dan Feyen.
By tradition, electors in Wisconsin cast their votes by writing them on pieces of paper rather than announcing them out loud, said Mike Haas, executive director of the Wisconsin Election Commission. The ballots are then counted by two people who serve as tabulators.
Trump, a Republican real-estate billionaire, garnered a surprise win in Wisconsin last month over Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump drew 47.2% of the vote to Clinton’s 46.5% and won by 22,748 votes.
Nationally, Trump handily won the Electoral College — the method used to choose American presidents — by 306 votes to 232 votes. But Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by 48% to 46.1%, or nearly 3 million votes.
That has drawn controversy, including a recount of the presidential vote in Wisconsin that was forced after Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein paid $3.5 million to cover its costs. But the recount did little to change Trump’s winning margin in this state.
Several groups are planning to protest in Madison Monday over the election and the discrepancy between the Electoral College and the popular vote, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the Electoral College Petition and Americans Take Action.
Steven Michels, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Capitol Police, said that officers are prepared for the demonstration.
“They are not expecting overwhelming crowds but are prepared should additional staff be required,” Michels said.