Electoral College Vote: Bernie Sanders Democrats Refuse To Pick Hillary Clinton As Donald Trump Is Declared The Winner

Some Bernie Sanders supporters refused to vote for Hillary Clinton in Monday's Electoral College vote. In Maine, an elector who sought to vote for the Vermont senator was blocked from doing so. In Hawaii, Sanders received his first electoral college vote that counted.

The protest votes did little to stop Republican Donald Trump from being declared the winner despite Clinton's lead of 2.9 million votes. He was expected to pick up 304 electoral votes, far more than the 270 needed to become president.

Ahead of the Electoral College vote, some Republicans and Democrats had said they would protest Trump because of her popular vote victory and his far-right policies. But only two of the 306 Republican electors, both from Texas, ended up casting a ballot against Trump.

Some Sanders supporters, however, were ready for a fight. Hawaii elector David Mulinix said he backed the Vermont senator because he was the “most qualified” candidate. In Maine, Democratic elector David Bright said he wanted to vote for Sanders in a display of solidarity for the many young voters who backed the Vermont senator in the state's presidential caucuses. Sanders beat Clinton in that race.

But presidential electors in Maine must vote for the popular vote winner. So Bright was told his vote was improper and was ordered to re-vote. He then picked Clinton, ensuring three of Maine's four electoral votes went to Clinton. Trump got one vote, the Associated Press reported.

"If my vote today could have helped Secretary Clinton win the presidency, I would have voted for her," Bright posted on his Facebook page. "But as the Electoral College meets all across this nation on this day, I see no likelihood of 38 Republican electors defecting from their party and casting their ballots for Secretary Clinton."

Bright later further recapped the uproar in a post on his Facebook page. "The story has been picked up by a number of different media around the country, so the message got out, and that was my initial goal. Obviously no Republicans voted for Clinton, so those dreamers who thought that might happen now have to face the fact that Hillary Clinton will not be President. We have what we have. The job now is learning to deal with it," he wrote.