Millions of Hillary Clinton voters watched with anticipation as the polls closed on election night, convinced that they were about to make history and elect the first woman president of the United States, and although it didn’t quiet work out they way they expected, Clinton still has been part of a truly historic event.
Supporters of Clinton can pop the champagne after all, as after Monday’s electoral college vote she made history by losing 5 electors who voted for someone other than her in their states, the most electors to become “faithless” since 1912. Despite a group calling themselves the “Hamilton Electors” trying to recruit electors who were mandated to vote for Donald Trump, the winner of their respective states, on 2 Trump electors became “faithless” and denied him their votes.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, lost 5 electors from heavily Democratic states that she won, decreasing her electoral vote from 232 to 227 which essentially widened Trump’s electoral lead by three since he lost two electors.
Not since 1912 has a candidate lost more electors than Hillary, and the only reason there were many faithless electors that year was because the Republican vice presidential candidate (James S. Sherman) died before the election, so it was not a case of a protest vote.
In Washington state Clinton lost one third of the 12 total electors granted to her from winning that state, as 4 electors cast their votes for someone other than herself. One of the strangest votes was from a faithless Clinton elector also in Washington state who cast their ballot for an Indian chief named “Faith Spotted Eagle”.
Washington has only 12 electoral votes, so a full one-third of its electors refused to vote for Clinton despite her easily winning the state’s popular vote. Three electors voted for Colin Powell while one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle. Powell is a Republican yet he supported Clinton for president (and also backed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012), while Spotted Eagle is a Yankton Sioux activist from South Dakota who had protested against the Keystone XL pipeline.
The faithless Clinton elector must have felt that the country would be better served by Chief Faith Spotted Eagle than Hillary, who constantly touted her almost “30 years of experience” in politics.
Here is a complete list of Hillary’s lost electors. In addition to the 5 that successfully cast their votes for someone else, there were also 4 electors who attempted to vote differently but were replaced by the state before they could.
8 Clinton defectors
4 WA (successful)
1 HI (successful)
1 MN (attempted)
1 ME (attempted)
1 CO (attempted)
2 Trump defectors
TX (successful)
So the next time you hear a Clinton supporter lamenting over the fact they missed out on making history by her becoming the first female president, remind them that Hillary was still part of a special historical occasion…having the most electors in 100 years change their votes to someone other than who won their state.