Nevada electors cast presidential votes on day of protests

CARSON CITY — Nevada’s six Democratic presidential electors cast their ballots Monday for Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, who won the state by 2 percentage points over Republican Donald Trump in the November election.

The electors, chosen at the state Democratic convention in May, were sworn in by Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske before casting separate votes for Clinton for president and Kaine for vice president.

The ballots will be sent to sitting Vice President Joe Biden, who is president of the U.S. Senate. All votes from the 50 states and District of Columbia will be counted Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress, Wayne Thorley, deputy secretary of state, told those assembled in the Old Assembly Chambers in the Nevada Capitol.

Votes from the Nevada contingent were largely symbolic. While Clinton won the popular vote nationally, Trump bested her in Electoral College votes to win the presidency.

Despite pressure from some calling on Republican electors to vote for someone other than Trump, the billionaire New York real estate and realty television personality easily amassed the more than 270 electoral votes needed Monday to assure victory.

State law requires Nevada electors to vote for the candidate who won the state.

All electoral votes nationwide were cast Monday, a day which also drew protests to 50 state capitals over the Electoral College system and Trump’s election victory.

In Carson City, about 60 people held signs, sang patriotic songs and demonstrated on in front of the Capitol, waving to traffic on the main thoroughfare through town.

Pam Straley, 67, of Incline Village, was among those who demonstrated on a sunny but cold day in Nevada’s capital city.

“I’m down here to protest the Electoral College vote takes precedent over the vote of the people,” Straley said. “My vote didn’t count, so I’m down here to show who I stand for. And it is not Putin’s puppet,” she said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that he was involved in Internet hacking to influence the presidential election Trump’s favor.

Cegavske said all presidential electors were invited to attend Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

JoEtta Brown, a Democrat from Douglas County, said she might attend, despite her differences with the president-elect and the Republican Party that controls both houses of Congress.