Electors Meeting Across the Country to Cast Votes

The 538 electors are meeting today to cast their votes in the last step of the presidential election. But what is usually a formality has taken on new significance this year with Donald Trump's election and calls for electors to defect.

In order to win the election, candidates need to reach 270 Electoral College votes. Trump reached that mark, garnering 306 electoral votes on Nov. 8 compared to Hillary Clinton’s 232 votes, although he trails her in the popular vote.

Over the past six weeks, left-leaning groups have called for electors to break rules that require them to vote in a way reflective of their states’ popular votes, a move that would make them “faithless electors.”

Electors are not bound by the Constitution or federal law to vote according to the popular vote of their state. Thirty states have laws that require electors to do, but those laws have not been scrutinized, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Activist Michael Moore has offered to pay the fines of those who choose to break with their states' vote.

One of the biggest concerns among some electors is the role of Russian hackers ahead of the election, and the potential impact that the revelations from the stolen emails had.

All but one of the 80 electors who have called for classified briefings on Russia’s suspected hacking are already pledged to Clinton.

The gap between the results of the popular vote and the Electoral College tally has also left some electors unhappy, with Clinton garnering some 2.8 million votes more than Trump.

Only one elector who is pledged to Trump -– Chris Suprun from Texas -– has said that he won’t be voting for Trump today. And one elector from Maine said he plans to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Clinton.

One elector will likely be voting for Clinton is her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will be casting his vote in New York. Clinton won the state by a large margin.

The Electoral College vote won’t be formalized until Jan. 6, when Congress counts the ballots.

Additional reporting by Shushannah Walshe, MaryAlice Parks and Lauren Pearle.

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