Mississippi’s six Electoral College votes are going to Republican President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
It was standing room only as Mississippi’s six electors gathered in a small committee room on the first floor of the Capitol, Monday. As expected, the electors, most of whom are current or former GOP leaders, cast their vote for the President-elect.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says the electors fulfilled their constitutional obligation.
“We cast our votes according to those votes cast in November,” says Hosemann. “Those votes are then certified here and then sent to the United State Congress. In a joint session in early January they confirm the Electoral College and the President is sworn in on the 20.”
Outside the Capitol, about a dozen protesters urged the six electors to cast their ballot for anyone other than Trump.
Ja Carthan of Jackson says she’s worried about Russia involvement with the election.
“We want to go down in history as being against this President and how he was elected, how Russia was involved. Never in history have you had another country involved with the election of a president. That should be disturbing to everyone whether you are a Republican of Democrat.”
But long-time Trump supporter and elector Charles Evers, the brother of slain Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers, says those concerns are overblown.
“Ya’ll stop all that bull. You got nothing to prove. Ya’ll just trying to find something. We whooped ya’ll Democrats. Putin didn’t have anything to do with that. Come on, they’re always trying to interfere if they can. They didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Mississippi’s six electors are not bound by law to vote for the winner of the state’s popular vote. They are, however, required by the party to take an oath to the vote for the winner.
