Ron Paul was one of a group of people who received electoral votes today. (Getty)
Four people besides Hillary Clinton and President-Elect Donald Trump received electoral votes today, as of the time of publication. Although there are penalties in some states for faithless electors, a few chose to brave the dissent and vote according to their conscience even if it didn’t match their states’ popular vote. However, the turnout of faithless electors was much smaller than many people had expected.
Here’s a list of people who received electoral votes, in addition to Trump and Clinton.
John Kasich Got One Electoral Vote in Texas
Chris Suprun of Texas said long before today that he planned to votte for someone other than Trump. He event wrote a detailed column for The New York Times about his decision. A petition was launched seeking to have Suprun removed as an elector, but the petition was not successful. Suprun cast his vote according to what he promised, and in the end he voted for John Kasich instead of Donald Trump.
Three other electors abstained entirely from voting in Texas and were replaced. Art Sisneros resigned because he could not vote for Trump. And three others resigned saying they realized they weren’t eligible to vote.
Kasich almost picked up one additional vote. An elector in Colorado voted for him instead of Clinton, but he was promptly replaced with an alternate who voted for Clinton.
Ron Paul Got One Electoral Vote in Texas
When the results were announced for the electoral college in Texas, out of 38 votes, 36 went to Trump. One went to John Kasich and one went to Ron Paul. It wasn’t immediately clear who cast the vote for Paul, but many people were happy about it. Later, Sean Walsh of the Statesman reported that the vote came from Bill Greene of CD 34.
Faith Spotted Eagle Got One Electoral Vote in Washington
In Washington, one elector cast a vote for Faith Spotted Eagle instead of Hillary Clinton. And despite rumors that this was an imaginary person, Faith Spotted Eagle is a real person — a Native American heavily involved in activism and seen as inspirational by many.
Faith Spotted Eagle is an activist who has been described as an “amazing and inspiring woman, mentor, teacher, and hellraiser.” Faith is deeply involved in grassroots efforts, including forming the Brave Heart Society to battle environmental injustice within Native American communities.
Colin Powell Received Three Electoral Votes in Washington
In the same state where Faith Spotted Eagle picked up an electoral vote, three other people cast their votes for Colin Powell instead of Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t immediately clear why or whether they were doing this as an attempt at the Hamilton Elector compromise candidate idea.
Bernie Sanders Got One Electoral Vote & Two Attempted Votes
One elector in Hawaii who was supposed to vote for Clinton flipped and voted for Bernie Sanders instead.
Meanwhile, two electors, one in Maine and one in Minnesota, attempted to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton. But their votes weren’t allowed. In Maine, the vote was declared invalid and the votes were recounted. David Bright then recast his vote for Clinton the second time. In Minnesota, elector Muhammad Abdurrahman refused to change his vote from Bernie to Clinton, so he was replaced by an alternate who voted for Clinton.