Despite pressure, Tennessee electors cast 11 votes for Trump

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, bottom right, and Secretary of State Tre Hargett, bottom center, await the state's Electoral College vote in the House chamber in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. Tennessee's 11 presidential electors on Monday cast their ballots for Republican Donald Trump amid protesters demanding they stray from their legal obligation to support the candidate who carried the state. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig) Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, bottom right, and Secretary of State Tre Hargett, bottom center, await the state's Electoral College vote in the House chamber in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016. Tennessee's 11 presidential electors on Monday cast their ballots for Republican Donald Trump amid protesters demanding they stray from their legal obligation to support the candidate who carried the state. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

By Andy Sher December 20, 2016 3 min read

FILE – In this Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, file photo, President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. Trump’s closest advisers see Democrats’ complaints that Moscow hacked their private emails this election season as a case of sour grapes. The pushback comes ahead of the Electoral College vote, Monday, Dec. 19, which is expected to make official Trump’s election win. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s 11 Electoral College votes all went to Republican Donald Trump on Monday despite calls from protesters to ignore a state requirement to support the candidate who wins the popular vote.

Republican electors here said they had been blitzed by thousands of letters, emails and phone calls, some of them threatening and nearly all from out-of-state groups aiming to deny an expected Electoral College victory by Trump.

But Tennessee’s vote was not without some side drama. Protesters in the state Capitol’s House gallery twice interrupted proceedings. One woman shouted Trump was “nuts,” prompting state Election Coordinator Mark Goins to bang his gavel and demand order. She was escorted out.

A man later sought to read a Bible verse, prompting Goins to tell him: “We certainly appreciate the Scripture, but this is a procedure the Electoral College can only proceed in. The answer is no.”