Rebellion is a seller at the movie theater, but it wasn\u2019t on the minds of Alaska\u2019s three Electoral College voters.<\/p>\n
On Monday, all three cast votes for Republican president-elect Donald Trump in a quiet ceremony at the Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives and Museum. The event lasted no more than 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Each elector signed a series of ballots for Trump and his vice president, then signed certificates affirming their decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did vote Donald Trump today, and I was honored that the people of Alaska entrusted me with the stewardship to carry those votes forward,\u201d said Jacqueline Tupou, an elector who lives in Juneau and worked for the Mitt Romney campaign in 2008 and 2012.<\/p>\n
In the weeks before Monday\u2019s vote, Tupou was inundated by emails and letters asking her to reconsider her vote for Trump.<\/p>\n
State law binds electors to the results of the state\u2019s popular vote, and 51.28 percent of Alaska\u2019s participating voters picked Trump in the Nov. 8 general election. The Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, received 47,000 fewer votes than Trump did.<\/p>\n
Tupou said she \u201creceived very thoughtful responses\u201d asking her to choose someone else, but she ultimately felt it \u201cwas important for me to honor the vote of the Alaskan people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carolyn Leman, wife of former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, said she had no doubts.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all. I\u2019m a Republican elector from Alaska, so I came here to do my duty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Former Gov. Sean Parnell also served as an elector. Now working in private legal practice in Anchorage, he didn\u2019t even attend the state Republican convention where the electors were chosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I was attending a family event out of state, and I learned I had been selected as an elector,\u201d Parnell said.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, he said he was an honor to participate, and he never considered someone other than Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will always be another election,\u201d he said. \u201cFor thousands of people to ask me to violate the laws of this state, that was just something I was not going to do. We have to be willing to follow our laws and abide by our Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Associated Press, six of the 538 electors nationwide picked a president other than Clinton or Trump. In Texas, one Republican elector voted for Ron Paul. Another voted for John Kasich. In Washington state, three Democratic electors picked Colin Powell and a fourth picked Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native leader who led protests opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline in South Dakota.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, Democratic electors also attempted to vote for someone other than Clinton, but two were replaced by alternates and one recanted his attempt.<\/p>\n
No protesters interrupted the Electoral College voting in Alaska \u2014 as happened in Wisconsin \u2014 but those in disagreement with the outcome nevertheless made their voices heard.<\/p>\n
Outside the doors of the SLAM, Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs held an anti-Trump sign in cold, wet weather. \u201cI back the results of Nov. 8 … but I think this candidate is manifestly unqualified to be president,\u201d she said, citing Trump\u2019s unwillingness to divest himself of financial conflicts before assuming office.<\/p>\n
Next to her stood 10-year-old twins Rachel and Kyra Wood. They also held anti-Trump signs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t vote with our mind,\u201d Kyra said as Rachel repeated her words, \u201cbut we can vote with our heart, and our heart says no DT.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the signing ceremony, Juneau resident Dennis Harris silently held up a pink sign emblazoned with the slogan \u201cDon\u2019t Let Putin Win!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was exercising my First Amendment rights, which I have done many times, sometimes at great personal expense,\u201d Harris said after the ceremony.<\/p>\n
In the back of the room, other protesters stood with electric tea lights in place of mourning candles. One wore a homemade button with the words \u201cElectoral College\u201d covered by a slash.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called First Amendment rights. I didn\u2019t try to disrupt anything. I just wanted to express my personal opinion,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n
Harris was particularly alarmed by Russia\u2019s alleged influence in the election. According to reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times, Russian agents broke into email accounts belonging to the Democratic National Committee and Democratic leaders, then released selected information to the website Wikileaks in an attempt to influence the election in favor of Trump, who is seen as favorable to Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
In the audience Monday at the SLAM was Artem Zagorodnov, a Russian journalist and economist brought to Juneau by the Juneau World Affairs Council for a lecture entitled \u201cPutin and Russia\u2019s Evolving Image in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zagorodnov said Russians have a political choice at the polls: \u201cvery Putin or moderately Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here in the United States, he said, the opportunity to vote for someone as radical as Trump speaks to the health of American democracy. He believes a Trump presidency will be more moderate than some Americans believe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that speaks to the … healthy system of checks and balances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tupou, one of the electors, appeared to agree with that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever wins the presidential race, it\u2019s not going to be somebody you agree with 100 percent of the time,\u201d she said. \u201cSo you work hard on those things you agree with, and you hold them accountable on things you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tupou married into a family of immigrants, and she knows the election has unnerved some on the losing side.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of your skin color or your religion, you\u2019re American, and we\u2019re excited for you to be here. I come in a family of immigrants and \u2026 I\u2019m excited for all of us to be welcoming and inclusive of all people in America. I\u2019m excited and I\u2019m hopeful that a Trump presidency will be inclusive of all Americans,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jerry Ward, a former Alaska legislator and the head of the Trump campaign in Alaska, offered similar words.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it means from here as well as for the rest of the nation is just like the man said,\u201d Ward said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have jobs, jobs, jobs, and it\u2019s a bright future for Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rebellion is a seller at the movie theater, but it wasn\u2019t on the minds of Alaska\u2019s three Electoral College voters. On Monday, all three cast votes for Republican president-elect Donald Trump in a quiet ceremony at the Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives and Museum. The event lasted no more than 40 minutes. Each elector […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":25481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25480"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}