WASHINGTON: America’s Electoral College on Monday confirmed Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States, unswayed by a desperate bid by die-hard opponents to bar the Republican’s path to the White House. Six weeks after his upset victory over the Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump sailed as expected past the 270 votes needed to make his victory official according to US media, clearing the way for him to succeed Barack Obama on January 20. I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans.”

Even one of Trump’s fiercest Republican rivals, Ohio Gov. I will work hard to unite our country and be the president of all Americans.”

Even one of Mr Trump’s fiercest Republican rivals, Ohio governor John Kasich, said it was time to get behind the president-elect. With nearly all votes counted, Trump had clinched 304 electoral votes to Clinton's 227, according to an Associated Press tally of the voting by 538 electors across the country. Trump, who is set to take office on Jan. 20, garnered more than the 270 electoral votes required to win, even as at least half a dozen U.S. electors broke with tradition to vote against their own state’s directives, the largest number of “faithless electors” seen in more than a century. After electors finished casting their vice-presidential ballots — Mike Pence got 37 votes and Carly Fiorina got one — Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted support for binding delegates to the winner of Texas' popular vote. Befitting an election filled with acrimony, thousands of protesters converged on state capitols across the country on Monday, urging Republican electors to abandon their party’s winning candidate. More than 200 demonstrators braved freezing temperatures at Pennsylvania’s capitol, chanting, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” and “No treason, no Trump!”

In Madison, Wisconsin, protesters shouted, cried and sang “Silent Night.” In Augusta, Maine, they banged on drums and held signs that said, “Don’t let Putin Pick Our President,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Austin, Texas, about 100 people chanting: “Dump Trump” and waving signs reading: “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You” gathered at the state capitol trying to sway electors. One Republican elector voted for Ron Paul, a favorite among Libertarians and former Republican congressman, and another for Ohio Governor John Kasich, who challenged Trump in the race for the Republican nomination. Four of the 12 Democratic electors in Washington state broke ranks, with three voting for Colin Powell, a former Republican secretary of state, and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American elder who has protested oil pipeline projects in the Dakotas. Despite the hopes of those who gathered outside state capitols across the country, protesting and urging electors to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, or, well, anyone other than President-elect Trump, the 538 members of the Electoral College convened and cast their ballots more or less as they were expected to. The Electoral College has 538 members, with the number allocated to each state based on how many representatives it has in the House plus one for each senator. The electors, chosen by state parties of the candidate who carried each state, convened in all 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia. In Hawaii, one of the state’s four Democratic electors cast a ballot for Sanders in defiance of state law binding electors to the state’s Election Day outcome, according to reports from the Los Angeles Times and Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspapers. “I will work hard to unite our country and be the president of all Americans.”

Under normal circumstances, the college vote is a little-watched, rubber stamp formality in which electors — most of them party members — officially cast ballots for the candidate that won the popular tally in their state. Ultimately, Trump won the Electoral College with just 304 electoral votes, one of the smallest margins of victory in a presidential election in U.S. history. He also claimed his win was "a historic electoral landslide victory in our nation's democracy," though Clinton actually won the popular vote by about 3 million ballots nationwide making Trump the worst-performing winner in the popular vote since 1876. “It just seems so undemocratic to me that people other than the voters get to choose who leads the country.”

A joint session of Congress is scheduled for January 6th to certify the results of the electoral college vote, with vice president Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate.
A record number of electors break ranks and do not vote for their assigned candidate. Two electors from Texas vote for John Kasich and Ron Paul. Some of the electors from Washington cast three votes for Colin Powell and one vote for Faith Spotted Eagle. One elector from Hawaii votes for Bernie Sanders.