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Despite emails, calls and protester pleas, Indiana electors stay true

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana electoral college voters stayed true Monday, despite protester pleas.

As electors walked inside the Indiana house chamber, protesters shouted. “If all you do is vote for the popular vote, you’re not doing your job,” a protester said.

Around 40 held signs, shouted, sang and chanted. “It looked like the “Jerry Springer Show,” protester Timothy Molinari said. “It’s been absolute chaos.”

They were protesting a vote. “Today, the 11 electors are here to cast their vote,” Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said.

A group of people who pledged to support the party’s nominee. “All 11 votes have been cast for Donald J. Trump,” Lawson said.

With Donald Trump, and Mike Pence winning Indiana, each stayed true to their word. “All 11 votes have been cast for Michael R. Pence,” Lawson.

“It was quite an honor, and quite a privilege to be able to sit here today,” Indiana elector Randy Kirkpatrick said. “What an honor it was to be a part of today,” Indiana elector Kelly Mitchell said.

While it felt good Monday, it’s been a long few weeks for electors.

“Well over 10,000 emails, letters, hand written,” Mitchell said. “Many of them to my home, to my office.”

“I, as an elector, got over 88,000 emails,” Kirkpatrick said. “I had hundreds of stamped emails, and telephone calls to my home number, and my cell number.”

Even though their message didn’t get through, protesters say they won’t go away.

“People probably won’t stop,” Molinari said. “It’s going to probably keep going as an anti-Trump movement.”

“If he’s inaugurated, it continues right through to a resistance, but I don’t think it’s going to happen because the man will be impeached,” protester Arnold Smith said.

The Indiana secretary of state’s office said since the process started, no Hoosier elected has broken from the party’s nominee. The votes will head to Washington D.C., where they will be announced on January 6th.