(Reuters) — Republican Donald Trump prevailed in the U.S. Electoral College voting on Monday (December 19) to officially win election as the next president, easily dashing long-shot hopes by a small movement of detractors hoping to block him from gaining the White House.
The president-elect posted a tweet about the Electoral College vote. “We did it! thank you to all of my great supporters, we just officially won the election, (despite all of the distorted and inaccurate media),” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump garnered more than the 270 electoral votes required to win, even as at least half a dozen U.S. electors broke with tradition to vote against their own state’s directives, the largest number of so-called “faithless electors” seen in more than a century.
A core of Democratic activists around the country had hoped to convince Republicans to cross lines and vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who won the nationwide popular vote on Nov. 8.
In the end, however, more Democrats than Republicans split with their party. Four Democratic electors voted for someone other than Clinton, while two Republicans turned their backs on Trump.
With nearly all votes counted, Trump had clinched the majority needed from the 538 electors across the country.
“I will work hard to unite our country and be the president of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement released by his transition team in response to the Electoral College outcome.