DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - The Latest on Iowa’s Electoral College vote (all times local):
3:50 p.m.
Two women held each other and wept as Iowa’s six electors cast their Electoral College ballots for Republican Donald Trump.
Mary Barrett and her daughter Rebecca Barrett drove from Iowa City to the state Capitol to see the Monday afternoon balloting, which took only minutes. They say given the importance of a Trump presidency, they wanted to see the Electoral College vote in person.
Mary Barrett says she’s “terrified what President-elect Trump may do.” She also expressed “surprise how sad it made me feel.”
Rebecca Barrett says she wanted to yell but opted to be respectful of the process, saying she had to “be quiet while our rights are taken away.”
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3:10 p.m.
Iowa’s six Electoral College voters have cast their ballots for Republican Donald Trump.
Trump won the presidential election in Iowa by nearly 10 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton, but Monday’s Electoral College vote was watched more closely than usual because of a national effort to thwart Trump of the presidency by denying him the necessary votes.
Electors in Iowa and across the country acknowledged they had been deluged with calls and emails from people encouraging them to not vote for Trump, even if the New York businessman had won in their states.
Despite the national intrigue, there wasn’t much drama in Iowa, as the six electors gathered Monday afternoon at the Capitol and quickly voted for Trump. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Secretary of State Paul Pate presided over the vote.
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8:10 a.m.
Six Iowa residents will take part in the Electoral College vote as the nation elects the next president and vice president.
The half-dozen people will cast ballots Monday afternoon at the state Capitol. The process is expected to take about a half hour.
The Electoral College system was devised more than two centuries ago. While people around the country individually vote for the presidential ticket, the winners are technically selected by a “college” of 538 electors from the states. The general premise is to ensure one state doesn’t have outsized influence in the election.
Some of the electors say they’ve been lobbied to change their expected votes for Donald Trump, who won easily in Iowa. The Iowa electors told The Associated Press they intend to vote for Trump.
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