Electoral College Settles Donald Trump’s Victory

In Florida, protesters swarmed the Capitol rotunda, one hoisting a “Trump Is Too Rusky” sign featuring a hammer and sickle. In Wisconsin’s statehouse, a heckler shouted, “We’re all going to go to war and die thanks to you,” during the formal meeting of the Electoral College.

And in New York, an elector by the name of William Jefferson Clinton cast his vote for his wife and then came out to make plain that he believes Donald J. Trump won the presidency only because of outside interference in the election.

“We had the Russians and the F.B.I., and she couldn’t prevail against that, but she did everything else and still won by 2.8 million votes,” Mr. Clinton said, his determined smile belying his fury.

The meeting of the Electoral College after presidential elections has long been little more than a tradition-bound formality, with political insiders gathering to ratify the preferences of their state’s voters and distribute 538 electoral votes. Yet as with so much else in this turbulent election year, even that civic ritual was punctuated by anger and dissent.

A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton.

Democrats were unable to persuade enough electors to withhold their support for Mr. Trump. He easily cleared the 270-vote threshold needed to defeat Hillary Clinton, with only two Republican electors declining to cast their vote for the president-elect. But the protests at state capitols across the country offered a preview of a tumultuous inauguration and first 100 days of the new administration.

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