HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut’s seven Democratic electors cast their votes Monday for Hillary Clinton, the winner of the state’s presidential election, with one elector voicing support for changing the system.
State Rep. Bob Godfrey, of Danbury, was chosen chairman of the electors. While noting the “solemn constitutional” duty marked the highest point in his political career, Godfrey said it was also the first position he’s ever held that he’d be “delighted to do away with.”
Godfrey, a deputy state House speaker, said he supports the president being elected by popular vote, “as we do for every other elected official in the United States of America, right down to dog catchers.” While Republican Donald Trump was expected to officially win the Electoral College vote and subsequently the presidency on Monday, Clinton got more than 2.6 million more votes than Trump nationwide.
More than 50 people braved the cold before Monday’s ceremony to voice concerns with this year’s election process and with Trump. Jan Carlsson-Bull, a 74-year-old minister from Middletown, said she thought it was important to speak out even though Connecticut’s electors were expected to cast their ballots for Clinton.
“We can’t overturn the Electoral College this year. But even though Connecticut’s electors will vote for Hillary, I think it’s symbolic that folks gather at every state Capitol in this country to say that the Electoral College hasn’t worked and Trump is unfit to be the president,” she said.
Carlsson-Bull said she hoped Trump electors in other states might be swayed not to vote for him because of the possible interference by Russia in this year’s election.
During Monday’s ceremony, which included an invocation from the president of the state chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said this was the fifth time the presidency was won through the Electoral College and without winning the popular vote.
While there have been hundreds of proposals over the years to change the system, Merrill noted how she and the electors were charged to carry out their constitutional duties.
“There are divisions in our country,” she said. “But we firmly believe in the peaceful transfer of power. Today is the second phase of that process.”
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