The Latest: Montana electors cast votes for Trump

HELENA, Mont. – The Latest on the Electoral College in Montana (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

Three Montana members of the Electoral College have voted for Republican Donald Trump.

Thelma Baker, Vondene Kopetski and Becky Stockton voted Monday in the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Montana Capitol.

A Montana law requires electors to take a pledge that they will vote for the party’s nominee for president. Trump won 56 per cent of the vote in Montana, compared to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 36 per cent.

Before Monday’s vote, Baker told The Associated Press that she felt bound to vote for Trump not only because of the law, but because she personally supported the Republican.

About 20 demonstrators gathered outside the state capitol Monday morning to protest Trump and to urge the state’s electors to cast their votes for Clinton, who won the popular vote nationwide.

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10:55 A.M.

About 20 people are protesting Republican Donald Trump outside the Montana Capitol before the state’s three electors cast their votes.

All three electors say they will vote for Trump on Monday, which they are bound to do under state law.

The protesters gathered in 20-degree weather after driving from places such as Ovando, Butte, Bozeman and Great Falls.

Cindy Kaufmann of Helena says the demonstrators believe the Electoral College should elect the candidate who received the majority of the nation’s popular vote, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Another protester, Dan Avery of Butte, says he doesn’t believe their presence will change any of the Montana’s electors’ minds. But he says that he is so frustrated with the process that he wanted to express his feelings, even if it doesn’t do any good.