WASHINGTON -- There were many protesters but few faithless electors as Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote Monday -- ensuring he will become America's 45th president.
An effort by anti-Trump forces to persuade Republican electors to abandon the president-elect came to practically nothing, and the process unfolded largely according to its traditions. Trump's victory Nov. 8 and the fact Democrat Hillary Clinton had won the national popular vote had stirred an intense lobbying effort, but to no avail.
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The effort injected more anger and partisanship into the already divisive 2016 presidential campaign.
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Even one of Trump's fiercest Republican rivals, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said it was time to get behind the president-elect.
"We want unity, we want love," Kasich said as Ohio's electors voted to back Trump at a Statehouse ceremony. Kasich refused to endorse or vote for Trump in the election.
Trump had 304 votes and Clinton had 227. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. Texas put Trump over the top despite two Republican electors casting protest votes.
Befitting an election filled with acrimony, thousands of protesters converged on state capitols across the country 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, Wis., 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 Harrisburg, Pa., Ray-Ellen Kavey, 68, said he had driven from neighboring New York state to try to persuade Pennsylvania's electors to switch allegiance.
"I think the Constitution charges the electors with preventing exactly what is happening here -- a hostile takeover of our government by a bigot who has been supported by Russia," Kavey said. "I know nothing will come of this, but my conscience won't let me do any less."
Despite the noise outside state capitols, inside, the voting went mostly as planned.
In Nashville, Tenn., one audience member tried to read out some Scripture before the ballots were cast, but was told that he could not speak.
"We certainly appreciate the Scripture," state Election Coordinator Mark Goins said from the podium. "The answer is no."
With all Republican states reporting, Trump lost only the two electors in Texas. One voted for Kasich, the Ohio governor; the other voted for former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Clinton lost four electors in Washington state -- three voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell and one voted for American Indian tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle. She also lost an elector in Hawaii to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton beat Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
Several Democratic electors in other states tried to vote for protest candidates but they either changed their votes to Clinton or were replaced.
In Albany, N.Y., former President Bill Clinton sat in the state Senate chamber as an elector and cast one of the Empire State's 29 electoral votes for his wife.
"I've never cast a vote I was prouder of," he told reporters after the meeting.
In a statement, Trump called the vote "a historic electoral landslide," though his percentage of the Electoral College would rank the victory only 46th out of the 58 U.S. presidential elections.
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 District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.
Republican electors were deluged with emails, phone calls and letters urging them not to support Trump. Many of the emails were part of coordinated campaigns.
In Baton Rouge, elector Charlie Buckels reached out to Trump's opponents after the New York businessman got all of the state's eight votes.
"For those of you who wished it had gone another way, I thank you for being here," said Buckels, the state GOP finance chairman. "I thank you for your passion for our country."
There is no constitutional provision or federal law that requires electors to vote for the candidate who won their state -- though some states require their electors to vote for the winning candidate.
Those laws, however, are rarely tested. More than 99 percent of electors through U.S. history have voted for the candidate who won their state. Of those who refused, none has ever been prosecuted, according to the National Archives.
Some people have argued that the Electoral College is undemocratic because it gives more weight to less populated states. That is how Clinton, who got more than 2.8 million more votes nationwide, lost the election to Trump.
"It just seems so undemocratic to me that people other than the voters get to choose who leads the country," said Shawn Terris, a Democratic elector from Ventura, Calif.
Some have also tried to dissuade Trump voters by arguing that he is unsuited to the job. Others cite the CIA's assessment that Russia engaged in computer hacking to sway the election in favor of the Republican.
A joint session of Congress is scheduled Jan. 6 to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate. Once the result is certified, the winner -- almost certainly Trump -- will be sworn in Jan. 20.
Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Ohlemacher, Paul Weber, Julie Carr Smyth, Marc Levy, Scott Bauer, Erik Schelzig, Jonathan Mattise, Kathleen Floody, Alex Sanz, Melinda Deslatte, Marina Villeneuve and Juliet A. Williams of The Associated Press; by John McCormick of Bloomberg News; and by Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/20/2016