is it time to change the electoral college? that's a question for you. if you support it, (202) 748-8001. the electors meet today. of thatan coverage starts at 11:00 this morning. we will take you to various places all across the united states to watch in the process play out. you can call in to do the by your experiences, your thoughts on this day for vote of president and vice president. it started 11:00. tonight at 8:00, you can see the complete rap up on c-span and www.c-span.org and c-span radio app. taking you to illinois, virginia, michigan, and pennsylvania. go to our website for more election. if you go to "the wall street recent polls taken about the concerns about influence in the election, particularly from russia, the poll that set the majority of americans are concerned about the efforts of russian hackers. how much does it bother you that try to influence the election? 43% said a great deal. you think then if actions helped donald trump win the presidency? 57% said no. it was on the sunday's shows yesterday with t

i will now call the roll of this electoral college. please signify by saying aye when your name is called. [roll call] >> thank you. let us proceed to the filling of the vacancies created by the absence of electors. the chair will entertain a motion to fill the vacancies. the chair now recognizes the honorable kathy sheehan of albany county. >> madam secretary, i move that the following substitutions be made. [roll call] >> thank you. the chair now recognizes the honorable scott stringer. >> madam secretary i second the motion that the substitution be made in the manner described. >> thank you. are there any further nominations? none being offered the nominations are now closed. i ask those in favor of the substitutions as described to signify so by saying aye. opposed. the motion is carried. will aaron stevens, meredith shepherd, teresa schwartz and eve gilligan please stand and raise your right hand so that i may administer the oath? do you solemnly swear to support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the sta

that is more the benefits of the electoral college. not only regional diversity is that we are the united states of america and not a people of -- not the united people of america. we have states as primary form of government. the college is a stabilizing influence. i would be concerned about getting rid of that. host: i want to bring in a caller. independent line. sterling, new york. jackson, you are first. go ahead. caller: you cannot get rid of the electoral college. it is the only real checks and balances we have left. it keeps the northeast from heavily voting clinton and then the rest of the country has no say. the founding fathers had it right. what's really upsetting to me is i heard on your last segment, obama is saying that california should have more senators then wyoming. everybody has 2 senators and we should know this and it is based -- and congress is based on your population. as for as in the russians, this is the biggest liberal left a mind candyanda going. this is for idiot americans who can't comprehend the progressiv

in illinois we're gathering for the 50th meeting of the illinois electoral college. e 20 illinois electors representing the majority wishes residents13 million of illinois. as required by law, copies of the certified vote will be sent to the president of the united states senate and the national archives and the chief federal judge for this district. also will maintain additional copies of the certification of the vote for public inspection. in order for this business to proceed, i would like to have the roll call. each elector shall respond by saying present. district one. >> present. >> district two. district three. ent.res .> district four present. >> district five. >> present. .istrict six >> present. district seven. >> present. >> district eight. >> present. >> district nine. >> present. >> district 10. >> present. >> district 11. >> present. arehe chair declares there 18 of the 20 electors for president and vice president are in attendance. electors carrie austin and john daly are unable to attend today's proceedings. in accordance with the provision of the illi

and the officers of the 58th electoral college of pennsylvania. >>> please be seated. as secretary of the commonwealth it's my honour to reside until the electoral of college organised the business as provided in article 2, section one of the constitution of the united states. it is your solemn responsibility to translate into a formal document for transition to the congress of the united states the decision of the voters so the commonwealth of pennsylvania at the general election hold on november 8, 2016. this being the day and the hour appointed by the constitution and the laws of the united states and of the commonwealth of pennsylvania, with the newly chosen electors to meet and give votes for president and vice president of the united states, the members of the college of electors will come to order. please rise as samuel, riley, kaitlin, mckenna and angelina lead us in a pledge of allegiance. >> all: the united states of america, one nation under god individual with liberty and justice for all. >>> thank you pages. i now call upon the reverent cannon love-lace and

it is my belief that our commonwealth has one of the best electoral colleges ceremonies in the nation. before the end of the day, 530 electors around the country will cast their votes to select the president and vice president of the united states. waselectoral college established by the framers of our constitution in philadelphia as a compromise between those who advocated the election of the president and vice president by the states and those who supported appointment by congress. under our federal system, the people of the united states vote for a lectors who in turn vote for the president and vice president. the votes in you cast today will be certified and sent to the u.s. congress and the national archives. 2017, they will be counted along with those of the other 49 states and the district of columbia in front of a joint session of congress. with the 20th amendment of the u.s. constitution, the president-elect will be sworn in on january 20th, 2017. madison while arguing for the adoption of the united states constitution stated that we may define our republic to be a government

it's not the popular vote, the electoral college boat that the kerman's -- that determines how is like our president. we will be monitoring what's going to be happening. the states in red, states that incted donald trump, those -- 270 electoral votes needed. hillary clinton getting 232 electoral votes. double trouble winning with 306 electoral votes. -- donald trump winning with 306 on 12 votes. let's take you to the u.s. constitution which frames what will be happening today in a state capitals. "the electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for president and vice president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves, they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as president and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as president and of all persons voted for as and of the number of votes for each which lists they shall sign and certify and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the united states." democrats trying to block donald trump from getting the necessary 270 electoral votes, in

also i want to mention that it's not simply the case that the electoral college with can be up in the world of slavery, but that the politics of race and conflict have been absolutely instrumental to preserving the elect are all college. one more point about the national popular vote. it is frequently invoked by opponents of reform that the small states will never go along with change. in fact, there is precious via the statistical evidence does not have the two abdicated at the national popular vote in the 20th century are john pastorius of rhode island and william langer are the various state of north dakota. on the national popular vote under state contract, i agree with my colleagues here intending to see it as a waste nation. one of my concerns is that ink and interstate compacts such as the one drawn up is inherently unstable because states can withdraw from it. they cannot withdraw six months before an election. it is precisely the instability and gamesmanship which bedeviled the operation of electoral college in the allocation between the 1790s and the early 1830s when states

but lost in the electoral college. the electoral college seems to be getting more disconnected from the popular vote. we didn't have to worry about it for 112 years and suddenly twice in 16 years and 2.5 million vote difference we are getting dangerously less democratic with a small d. it is time we got rid of the distorting influence of the electoral college on the popular will. some proponents of the electoral college argue that it is necessary to protect smaller states by giving them an outsized influence. however, the small states already protected inso far as they need protection by having outside influence in the united states senate. by each state guaranteed two votes. wyoming was 600,000 people has the same two senators as california with i think 39 -- i don't know, 25, whatever, how many million. there are 53 seats, probably about 35 million people. and they don't need extra protection in the electoral college as well. in addition, the difference between the population of the small states and the large states

the 2016 presidential electoral college is now adjourned. onorary electors please move to the front of the chamber for purpose taking a commemorative photo of michigan's 2016 electoral college and i thank you for your service today on electing a new president and vice president. much.you so >> donald trump goes over the top winning the 270 -- more than 270 electoral college votes to officially become the president-elect. it was texas putting donald the top, about 15 minutes ago or so, he wins 36 of 38 electoral votes in texas. donald trump getting 36. went to rand paul and one to john kasich. according to the constitution, article two in the amendment, votes will be counted officially by a joint session of congress on january 6. we will have live coverage of on spanoulis. also -- cspan. if you missed any of today's electoral college voting across the country, we will replay a good bit of it tonight beginning .t 8:00 eastern of presidential inauguration donald trump is friday, january 20. cspan and on cspan.org and listen live on the app.cspan

and again, in the electoral college, you have to have -- you have to be able to carry states that amount to on a weighted basis 270 electoral votes, half of the country. if you do not have that, then swing states don't have any meaning at all. the question that i have asked is how things will change. if you can get credit for running up the score in a state you already have in the bag, rather than spending your time trying to get from 49 to 51 in a swing state, is that a good change or a bad change and what kind of different candidates would be elected. we've heard recount, i think the idea you are going to do a national recount is absurd. you will not be able to do that. you are going to have state secretaries of state that you don't trust any further than you can throw them coming up with numbers that are just not credible on their face and what are you going to do in that situation. different states have different election laws, states of the same size are casting vastly different kind of votes, but again, campaigning strategy, what -- how would the campaigning strategy differ on a st

electoral college when it began, in some states the electors fulfill the will of the people or the people who were allowed to vote at that time in those days. in some states, there was no popular vote and the electoral college chose whom they wanted. in this case, we have a system 51 systems. it sheds some light on that process. theously, if you read coverage and thought this was in doubt, maybe it got too much coverage but by and large this was not in doubt and it sheds some light on some quirks in our system. >> if you watched what was happening and we were live in new york and michigan and pennsylvania and illinois. there was a majesty and simplicity to that process. putting in those paper ballots. in each of the states, that is what it looked like. stephen shepard: the pageantry is the word i would use to describe it. we will see the same thing on january 6 when a joint session of congress convenes to count these votes. this is not the last step in the process. the last step will be to send these votes to washington and countedm examined and before a joint session of the congress in e

back here state side members of the electoral college voting today. this hour the electoral voting begins in wisconsin, in minnesota and in three other states. we start with turkey and breaking news. now video from msnbc's cal perry. we have to warn everybody that the video you are about to show of the attack is graphic. first tell the viewers what they are about to see. >> karlov is a diplomat out of the foreign ministry. he's shot from behind, shot and killed by an attacker posing as a member of his security force. there you see him in the photo. let's play the video. you are not actually going to see him shot. we freeze it before the moment. here it is. in just a second. andrei karlov is at a photo exhibit entitled russia through turkish eyes in ankara. behind him a gunman there with hands in the air shoots the ambassador dead in front of a number of news cameras. the gunman yells allahu akbar, god is great saying, quote, you are killing people in aleppo and so we will kill you, too. he then turned to people there at the exhibit saying i have nothin

68 which alexander hamilton, not madison, wrote to articulate the reasons on why we have an electoral collegeere are actually a lot of the same reasons the democratic party used to justify its support for faithless electors including i'm assuming maybe you guys did a couple weeks ago when you were pushing for the electors to switch their votes. you can't conflate two things. are there racist institutions in our country, is the three-fifth compromise something that should be discussed in racial terms? yeah. i don't think it's fair to conflate the two. >> do you understand, before you respond, do you understand part of the impetus for the electoral college was so people who were slave owners could count those slaves as populations so that people in the north and more populous places would not have more votes than the people in the south? >> three-fifths. >> the three-fifths compromise is not the same as the electoral college. >> i don't understand why you can't get this. >> i don't understand why you don't get it, angela. >> because you're wrong. like, i don't know what -- >> yes, you are wrong

the electoral college, when it began, in some states the electors fulfilled the will of the peep or the people allowed to vote at that time. and some say the people didn't have - there was no popular vote and the college chose who they wanted. in this case we have a system where it's 51 vividual state elections in the district state of columbia, it sheds light on the process. that said, look, obviously this was - if you read the coverage and thought it was in doubt. maybe it got too much coverage. by and large it wasn't in doubt. it shed light on quirks of the system. >> as you watched what was happening and we were live in new york, michigan, pennsylvania, and illinois, there was a majesty and simplicity to the process, putting the paper ballots. in each state, that's what it looked like. >> the pageantry is the word i'd use to describe it. we'll see the same thing in jan 6th. when a joint session of congression convenience to count the votes, it's not the last step in the process, the last step in the rose is to send the votes to washington and have them examined and counted before a

the electoral college is the points. donald trump -- ironically he was the amateur who understood the electoral college mattered. the so-called professional forgot the electoral college mattered and that's what mattered. >> so does the fact that clinton got nearly three million more voters matter? if it doesn't, why is donald trump still griping about it on twitter? sam stein is political editor for the huffington post. hugh hewitt is the host of the hugh hewitt show on the salem radio network. great to be here in person with you in d.c. i'm going to let you play armchair psychiatrist. donald trump won the election, the electoral college certified him. why does he seem, sam, to be so bothered by this popular vote number? >> it's a great question. i think newt is right there. he won by the rules that you play the game and he's president and there's no way to take that away. if you are going to say it matters it's only to the extent that he can claim a mandate which is sort of this symbolic thing because if you win you'll

electoral college is not broken. however the way it functions with nearly every state using winner-take-all rules is problematic. for future elections the states, not congress, have the ability to make every vote in every state matter. and thank you. mr. chairman, could i have just five more seconds? >> how about four? >> four will do it. if i can give a personal perspective on the state of arizona where we only have 17% of our land in private ownership. if i can repeat that. compared to the eastern states, arizona only has 17% of our land. so what does that mean. it means greatly reduced property tax, but also representation here in this body and representation when it comes to electoral votes, so in comparison to the eastern states, the western states have a huge problem being equally treated when it comes to presidential elections, and it comes to just educating our kids. thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> your point is well taken. but i notice you exceeded the time allotted by at least three seconds. thank you

why would someone chosen by trump's people then go and not vote for him in the electoral college. >> didn't make much stops pin nopz elector ral college. >> we know there were 37 that would need too change to not win this. in the end explain to viewer he would have won anyway this is a act of futility right? >> exactly. right. if trump ended up below 70 he welcome toreal votes house republicans still have a clear majority in the house of representatives. so there was no stopping this even if he got below 20 electoral votes and he entered up in the house. >> four years, one month and about 15 days ago donald trump tweeted electoral disaster for democracy do you think tonight his mind maybe changed a little bit. >> i would assume so. that was changely the septemberment that a lot of republicans were having on that 2012 election night when it seemed for a very, very brief moment that mitt romney would lose electoral college and win popular vote and in the end that did not end up happening theres with a an hour or two republicans felt that way. >> interesting. jason russel contributing ed

two and half million votes and counting but lost in the electoral college. more disconnected from the popular vote. we didn't have to worry about it for 112 years and suddenly twice, a 2.5 million difference. we are getting less democratic, with a small deed. "d." proponents argue it is necessary to protect smaller states by giving them an outside influence, however the small states are already protected in some far as they need protection by having outside influence in the united states senate. each state guaranteed to votes. wyoming was 600,000 people has the same two senators as california with i think however many million. 53 seats, it is probably about 35 million people. herthey don't need to ask protection in the electoral college as well. the difference in the population between small and large states is much bigger now than it was when the constitution was written. we've gone to the point where about 20% of the population of the united states can elect the majority of the united states senate. that is ample protection for the small states. your are s

they say then the electoral colleges must work brilliantly for the small states if not for the big oneshree or four electors, have been total flyover country. hillary clinton did not spend any time, money, or resources contesting the small states and donald trump expended zero resources competing for the both -- votes of americans living in the small blue states of rhode island, delaware, vermont, who i come of the district of columbia. of the 13 smallest states only new hampshire attracts campaign visits and budgets and filled offices and so on. all told, the dozen smallest states have about the same population as ohio and because of the two senatorial donors -- bonus electors, they actually have to compare to 18 but while they spend tens of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of staff hours in ohio, they spend zero resources into times and any small states except for new hampshire because it happens have a rough equivalency of democrats and republicans. the candidates to go to big a small states, they go to swing states. they go to the big ones. two thirds of the general electio

. >> republican members of the electoral college, this message is for you. >> reporter: todayroup of famous actors, including some veterans of "the west wing," released this video appeal. >> as you know, the constitution gives electors the right to vote for any eligible person. >> no matter which party they belong to. >> reporter: the actors insist the founding fathers intend the electoral college to safeguard against an unwise choice. >> by voting your conscience, you can give the house of representatives the option to select a qualified candidate. >> the trump camp is just today he tweeted, if russia or some other entity was hacking, why did the white house wait so long to hack? why did they only complain after hillary lost? of course that's misleading, the complaints have been around for months. it even came up in the debates where trump denied being putin's puppet. >> no puppet, no puppet. you're the puppet. >> reporter: to get some definitive answers on what the electoral college and how it's supposed to work, we've come to nps ha independence hall and the constitutional

nominations are now in order for the chair of the 2016 president of the electoral college.ill now recognize hank for the purpose of making a nomination. [applause] [indiscernible] a hellgovernor is doing of a job. thank you. >> thank you, hank. do we have a second? we have got a second. hearing no other nominations, the nominations are closed. thank you. all in favor of governor rick snyder for the chair of the 2016 electoral college, signify by saying aye. all opposed, say nay. governor snyder is unanimously elected as chair of the 2016 presidential electoral college. thank you. thank you, please be seated and thank you for that honor. please be seated. [inaudible] >> you are a little out of order, but, john, what will you share with us? >> [inaudible] >> do you have a statement you would like us to ask? ] ndiscernible >> ok. do we have a second? all in favor of having the statement read, say aye. >> aye. >> all opposed, say nay. you may read your statement. >> whereas the signers of the constitution understood the natural instinct to man to govern in such a way to benefit

the 2016 presidential electoral college is now adjourned. all official and honorary electors please move to the front of the chamber for purpose of taking a commemorative photo of michigan's 2016 electoral college and i thank you for your service today on electing a new president and vice president. thank you so much. [applause] >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and all of the issues that impact you. coming up, a discussion on usa today and investigation into drinking water of small communities across the nation which found people in many of these systems work drinking untested or tainted tap water. and talking about a book, the return of the old economy. the book argues the prosperity and growth experience in the years after world war ii were and apparition and are now coming into reality. be sure to watch this next on c-span. we talked to newly elected representative jayapal. then, air force secretary debra orah lee james. as followed by how a look at how china is using science and technology in its military strategy

elections, a bipartisan group of members of the electoral college have requested an unusual intelligence briefing on the matter before they cast their votes next week. we will speak with california elector christine pelosi, who is leading the effort. then investigative reporter greg palast goes to michigan after a judge shuts down a recount of the presidential vote in the state. and thiss trumpville is their hero, the man who shut down the recount. your republican attorney general of michigan. he issued an order saying no one would be allowed to look at the ballots and over half the precincts, 59%, and the detroit area. the very place that most of the vote had gone missing. amy: and we will look at john kelly who has been tapped by trump to have the department of homeland security as commander of southern command, he oversaw u.s. military prison at guantanamo. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. it is official. donald trump has chosen the ceo of the world's largest oil company and a man with no political

we do have them for the electoral college. we have them more for the electoral college. and even if you can't win nationally you can be a spoiler and throw things into the house of representatives and change the outcome and be the king maker so we have a bigger problem with them than we have for governors. one point even though the question wasn't addressed to me the role that slavery played is not merely with the founding after two elections many which he ran against a northerner adam and the southern won the south both times and the northerner won the north both times and it was amended without votes created by slavery. they win that with 13 extra votes. my friend is maybe shaking his head but i can show you that that's what every adams supporter says including people in this house that said we were robbed but the biggest one is not created at philadelphia that's the 12th amendment system and there's a whole book on it called negro president and it's not well-known actually just how large a role slavery played in the early elections the chairman has come into the panel

of course, trump views electoral colleges have changed. he's now a fan.eanwhile, a new poll out shows the majority of the country isn't hopeful about a trump presidency. 54% say they're uncertain. only 45% say they're hopeful. for more, i'm joined by jacob in austin. tell us how the scene looked earlier today. >> it was a fascinating thing to see, but it was not exactly a squeaker as some hoped. ultimately what happened here was we saw two faithless lectors vote for someone other than donald trump. the most interesting part is that hillary clinton had more faithless lectors than donald trump. four defected from her and voted for presidential candidates other than hillary clinton. again, what's interesting to me about this, this is a test of online activism translating into real world effects. we saw almost 5 million people sign a petition urging the electors to vote for anybody but donald trump. that's the exact opposite of what happened today. they were arguing that they can do ultimately whenever they want. that is not what they chose to do, for whateve

make-up of the house of representatives was different and yet, still, the electoral college mostly because the electors are chosen by party organizations really went along with what the electoral college vote was on election day. >> in the spirit of a changed election and high drama, in the last hour, i actually spoke with chris suprin, who said he's not going to be casting his vote for donald trump. i want to share what he said to me. >> i do not think hs a political decision. if i were voting for political expediency, it would be for donald trump. but i'm voting for my principles. he seems to be a demagogue with the way he divides us and certainly, in my opinion, not appropriate to secure foreign governments. >> what would you to say to chris? >> i'd say he probably ought to do what the voters in his state set him out to do. he certainly has the right to cast an independent jult, but even on top of this, there's no end game for this. even the clinton folks in the electoral college are not asking for a vote for hillary clinton. as mark described it, donald trump by some strange quirk of e

meanwhile, al gore said it is time wee limb fated -- eliminated electoral college. ho won the popular and lost the electoral said our democracy is being hacked. >> what do i think of your gore impression? >> i think you should update your act. >> i've been working on that for 15 years. >> if you are a 40-year-old person right now. >> it gets better response than eisenhower. >> al gore is very charizmatic and he puts americans to sleep when he speaks. >> in person he is really charizmatic. >> everything he has done for climate change. he has top positive things. >> you like him if. >> i don't think he is the best speaker. >> what about the electoral college? he was happy with the electoral college. he said the system is the way it is. >> here is the thing, tom, me like many americans i thought the electoral college was an actual college in the bronx. >> i am a product of the public schools. >> if you actually thought you would watch -- >> well, i think it is a viable discussion to have even though doing work to try to change the electoral college will not change the r

this week, donald trump did praise the electoral college. >> the electoral vote. i never appreciated it until now. how genius it was. what they had in mind. because at the time they didn't want everybody going to boston and, no and everything, it's genius. >> in 2012 trump had a very different view of the electoral college. trump tweeted i am correctly that romney won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college. in reality, president obama won both quite handily. he called it a disaster for democracy. he tweeted, he lost the popular vote by a lot. we should have a revolution in this country. so yeah, hypocrisy. if donald trump had won the popular vote by 3 million vote and lost in the electoral college, he would be calling for revolution. democrats are. i don't know about trump. a constitution alma jort. i love the electoral college. i've always loved it. i'm glad it evolved. >> i think that partisans on each side are a little bit selective in their average on this. i imagine that had the situation been reversed, democrats would have been loving the elector

electoral college is set to officially formalized donald trump's win, but not without protest against the president-elect and the electoral system itself. the head of the international monetary fund is due to get her verdict today in a case linked to her time as france's finance minister. christine lagarde is accused of negligence over a huge payout to a french business tycoon. also coming up this hour, apple and ireland are teaming up to fight the european commission. we will tell you why in business. we will look back at the long and glamorous career of shasha zsa gabor, who passed away at 99 years old. first, our top story, live from paris. genie: first, to syria, where over 4000 people have now been evacuated from the rebel enclave in aleppo. convoys have been crossing the -- of the rebel held territory in northern syria. thousands are still trapped inside the stronghold. for more on the situation, let's go live to adam pletts, who joins us from beirut. first of all, start with the evacuations today. what has been happening with those? adam: it started late last night when the fir

and more on the evacuation of the syrian girl who's the face of the city's conflict and the electoral college about to make donald trump's win official and not without a little drama. we'll have those states by states results as they come in. the protest efforts to get electors to trump trump. while a vote is a long shot. we start with the breaking news out of turkey of the ambassador shot and killed at the art exhibit in the capitol city. the attack captured in chilling video. our team is following developments here in the studio and on the ground. first to msnbc's senior editor, cal perry. he's got the disturbing footage. >> it is graphic and what you are going to see is the russian ambassador being shot from behind by what we now understand is a turkish police officer. take a look. >> you can hear the audio there. here is what the gunman says in arabic. he switched to turkish and he says do not forget aleppo and syria. you are killing people in aleppo so we'll kill you, too. >> the gunman of a brazen fashion and says i have nothing against you, speaking to the people here in this room. you

as long as the electoral college has been in place. their votes at noon tomorrow, it is projected donald trump will get 306 and clinton will get 232. one relelector resigned after saying he couldn't support donald trump. >> thank you for having me on. >> what is your reaction from your fellow electors? >> i am touched by the concerns they have. this is representative of basically half a country. you have a divided country. the type of discourse taken place was not conducive toward bringing the country together. i know that when i first initially spoke up, it was because i thought that the comments that were promoted by the candidate was not promoting the ideals of american exceptionalism, which i and others believe in, even on the republican side. which is the ideals of decency and civility. >> given that, each state has different rules. in your state of georgia, the rule is, if you don't show up tomorrow, which you plan not to do, you're just going to be replaced. you could have shown up and voted against him. you could have voted for

fox & friends first the electoral college votes today take donald trump's victory. in a last ditch effort thousands of democrats are urging electors to change their minds. 36 republican electors would need to flip their votes for someone else in order to derail mr. trump. they can -- can they actually pull it off or is this really about something else entirely. joining us now for a fair add balanced place what is this about? >> about the reality hillary clinton wants the popular vote. i think people feel they have to use the traditional recount of the electoral college vote to feel better wiabout the fact th i have a feeling nothing is going to change because there's only evidence of one person who has given votes to donald trump that is willing to actually take that vote back. you have stateded he has to have so many votes. this is more about making the point that they feel the popular vote has not been heard and donald trump won by a land slide. >> is it protecting democracy? >> i think using democracy the way it was designed to be used. i think the electoral colle

do you think at this point the electoral college should go away? >> it's not functioning as it was designed to function. one thing we can see with the most recent election, the electoral college was meant to be a break on the sort of uneducated, unknowing populace which is the way the founders intended it. what we have today with information technology, with the internet, we are more informed. we have a robust media. so the idea there are electors on high that are going to make determinations about a president that regular folks can't make, i think doesn't make any sense anymore. that's another reason to think about getting rid of it. whether or not we can, whether this becomes another partisan issue which i suspect that it will -- >> let's look at what the president-elect was doing this morning. i was surprised to see him bring this up. i don't think he was bringing it up because bill o'reilly brought it up last night. i'm not sure why president-elect donald trump decided to monday morning quarterback an election he won. you don't often look back

i think people just don't understand the benefits of the electoral college. i feel like we need a col civics class on the benefits of the electoral collection and what it's meant to do and not allow pockets or cities of large population centers to determine the outcome of the election, but also it's fascinating the fact that democrats are pointing to russia when russia if they did anything regarding this election, they wouldn't be able to swing it comploatly. what they would be able to do is discord among american people anfeel like the wholprs is delight miez. maria: there's the celebrities, you have martin sheen, sheen released this personalized video message to mr. ashley mcmillan, turns out it's a female mcmillan responded, it's my job to represent the people of monday. it was martin sheen's to get my name right and she failed. i won't. what do you think celebrities trying to change the outcome? >> disdain for the public and system of government. how dare they question this system when it has served us so well. maria: this is from barack obama, back in oct

electoral college vote? we're switching gears, sorry about that. >> he refused tosay he would accept the outcome of this elect. >> he refused to say, he would respect the results of this election. >> that last debate, he said something truly horrifying, that was that he would not say he would accept the results of the election. liz: remember president obama also criticized trump as well. but now in a final bid to delegitimize president-elect trump's victory, protests erupting across the u.s. california voting this hour. we will not find nationwide results until january. members of media also pressures electoral college to change their votes to deny trump the presidency. >> trump protest is spill hopinstill hoping for one last chance. >> it seems that people are still holding out hope that the electoral college will in how decide that hillary clinton is the winner. >> when founding father created the electoral college, they put it in place as a fail safe against a demagogue like donald trump. the electionors

as for the electoral college, bill ao'reilly has controversial ideas. the push to abolish it is about one thing. >> the left in america is demanding the electoral college system put into place 1787, that it be scrapped. a hidden reason for this. believing this is all about race. the white sees white privilege as an oppressive force that must be done away with. therefore, white working class voters must be marginalized, sum it up, left wing power taken away from the establishment, want a profound change in the way america is run. taking voting power away from the white precincts is the quickest way to do that joining us, director under president reagan and a big donald trump supporter jeffrey lorde and with us, former executive director of the congressional black caucus. jeffrey, just heard the comments from bill o'reilly, do you agree? conspiracy? i can understand complain about hillary clinton not winning, but i'm not sure there's a racial conspiracy. >> i'm not sure there's a racial conspiracy, per se. i am sure the democratic party since its inceptio

when we come back, it is electoral college day. will go to denver, colorado, just equip one of the electors. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the 538 electors of the electoral college are sent to me today to officially choose the next president of the united states. electors meet in their respective state capitals to cast ballots to determine who will be the next president. in past elections committee meetings generally are a formality. this year, increasing number of people have called on the electors to refuse to vote for president-elect donald trump. one republican elector has come out saying he will not vote for trump and there are reports of other so-called republican faithless electors. michael moore has offered to pay the fines of any elector who breaks ranks and votes against donald trump. trump needs to secure 270 electoral votes to take office. he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million. joining us now is polly baca, coloradoc elector from who believes

from becoming president. >> 538 members of the electoral college. you. >> and 36 other conscientious republican electors can make a difference. >> by voting your conscience on december 19th. >> i question the logic of those asking the electors to go rogue and here's why. true, we don't have a direct election of the presidents in the united states. when we cast our ballots for president on november 8, we were actually choosing between competing states of electors. the same numbers of congressional representatives and senators. that's how we get the magic number of 270 elected to be president and the 12th for the electoral college but doesn't obligate an elector to vote a particular way. those who don't follow the wish of the electorate are called faithless electors and guidance on them. many look to federalist paper number 68 for insight where hamilton wrote this, quote. it was equally desirable that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adopted to the station and acting under circumstances favorable to d

donald trump is expected to officially be elected president today when the electoral college votes. 538cast ballots and 270 are needed to win. at least ten say they will goat against their party's wishes in an effort to block mr. trump. trump electors are under intense pressure to change their final votes. julianna goldman reports. >> reporter: when americans cast their ballots last month, they technically voted for members of the electoral college who are supposed to then vote for the candidate who won their state. but in texas, where donald trump's victory over hillary clinton theoretically won him 38 electors one said not so fast. >> i think the first time in america's history we have someone who is clearly unfit for office. >> reporter: chris supron is the only republican elector to publicly say he won't vote for mr. trump. >> i see my role a little bit like a jury or a judge and jury where the jury has made a decision but judges can still set it aside. unfortunately, i feel that that is my responsibility this time. >> reporter: since the election, democratic activists have tried to

it's not going >> requiring electoral college voters to vote the way their states voted. electoral voters in other states are free to change their minds. the texas elector is the only member to say he won't vote for mr. trump. >> i think this is the first time in america's history where we have someone who's clearly unfit for office. >> president elect donald trump spoke out against those pushing electors to change their minds. he tweeted if my many supporters acted and threatened people, they would be scorned and called terrible names. they're expected to elect mr. trump president. michelle for cbs news, the white house. >> and chris, the texas elector who refuses to vote for donald trump says he'll cast his ballot for ohio governor john kasich. the electoral college is trending big time on social media today. he's not my president tweets we will witness one of the lowest points in american history with the election of #electoralcollege. #lockhimup. if russians are responsible for hillary's defeat. thank god the russian's saved the u.s.a. >>> jury voting on behalf of the

so the defense of it is, as trump who is a, a recent convert in the electoral college. >> hated it. >> the popular vote. the defense is, states where the candidates would never go if we didn't have the electoral klemp and it gives some of the smaller states a little bit more of a say in the system. >> i've heard some democrats say, well, the senate is representative of states. right? you have the small states with two senators just like big states like california only have two senators. that should be enough. i mean, what do you say to that? >> it mirrors the undemocratic nature of the senate which was, of course, a compromise, when the constitution was written, is carried over into the electoral college. that's the argument. that -- we shouldn't have both of these undemocratic things institutionalize. >> undo the electoral college, would you have a movement to changt the w change the way the senate is distributed? >> i want to talk about russia and some of what we're hearing, really a divide between republicans like john mccain and donald trump. you have john mccain, wh

and the 12th amendment spells out the process for the electoral college. ose who don't follow the wish, the will of the electorate, they're called faithless electors and the constitution offers little guidance on them, which is why many look to hamilton's federalist paper number 68 for insight. and that's where hamilton wrote this -- quote, it was equally desirable that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adopted to the station and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice, unquote. boy, that sounds good in theory, but is that really what we have on our hands? put aside for a moment whether you think trump lacks requisite qualifications. have we assembled, quote, men most capable to replace the will of the electorate? i have my doubts. take the case of chris supra the texas elector who was the only trump elector to publicly state that he would be voting against trump. and weeks earlier, he had