CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - In a story Dec. 16 about New Hampshire electors, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Terie Norelli was New Hampshire’s first female House Speaker and Bev Hollingworth its first female Senate president. They were the first female Democrats elected to those jobs.
A corrected version of the story is below:
New Hampshire electors - 4 female “firsts - to back Clinton
Four female “firsts” will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton on behalf of New Hampshire when the Electoral College officially chooses the next president
By KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Four female “firsts” will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton on behalf of New Hampshire when the Electoral College officially chooses the next president Monday.
Each was the first Democratic woman - or first woman ever - elected to a different prominent state office. The New Hampshire Democratic Party chose them as electors in the summer, before anyone knew whether Clinton or Donald Trump would win the state in November. The four are disappointed that choosing Clinton won’t be enough to make her the nation’s first female president.
“We’re the first state where it will be four women that will be casting the vote,” said Bev Hollingworth, New Hampshire’s first Democratic female Senate president. “Had it been that Hillary had won, it would’ve been historic.”
Alongside Hollingworth, the electors are: Dudley Dudley, New Hampshire’s first female executive councilor; Terie Norelli, the first Democratic female speaker of the House in the state; and returning U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, the first woman New Hampshire elected to Congress, in 2006. They’ll gather Monday at 10 a.m. in the Executive Council to cast their votes, as electors all across the country gather in their states.
There are 538 electors nationwide; winning the presidency requires support from 270 of them. Trump is poised to capture 306, based on the states he won in the Nov. 8 election. Although Democrats and some Republicans have attempted to create an uprising, few electors contacted in a broad survey by The Associated Press expressed an appetite to go against the will of voters in their states.
New Hampshire’s four electors have signed a letter asking for electors to receive an intelligence briefing prior to the vote about the President-elect’s possible ties to Russia, a request that will likely go unfulfilled.
Norelli called it “a little bittersweet” to be casting a vote for Clinton even though she won’t become president.
“I wake up some days feeling totally overwhelmed thinking about how much there may be to defend in the next four years - women’s rights, civil rights, various groups for which we’ve fought for so long,” Norelli said.
Dudley, who said it was a “thrill” to serve as an elector, said she would consider voting for a different Republican alternative, but so far no credible candidate has been presented.
Dudley and her fellow electors said they think it’s time for a conversation about the effectiveness and future of the Electoral College. Like other Democrats, they are concerned that Clinton won more votes in the popular vote total but lost the Electoral College.
“I can see no argument against having the popular vote win,” Dudley said.
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