Jim Rosica
As expected, Florida’s 29 Republican members of the Electoral College on Monday cast their vote for Donald Trump for president and Mike Pence for vice president.
The electors are among Florida’s most loyal Republicans. They were chosen by the state GOP and approved by Gov. Rick Scott.
The votes were cast as dozens of protesters hollered and chanted against Trump in the Capitol rotunda.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was appointed by Scott, presided over the highly-scripted and generally uneventful meeting.
One bit of tension came when elector and state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, the House Republican Leader, missed the roll-call vote. He was back in the chamber within minutes, however.
“You’re buying us dinner,” Detzner joked.
Elector and Senate President Joe Negron led the pledge of allegiance before members got down to the quick work of filling out separate and distinct ballots” for president and vice president.
Each elector then signed copies of the official “certificate of vote” and had a group photo taken.
State Rep. and Republican Party of Florida chair Blaise Ingoglia apologized to electors for any “intrusion on your family time.”
The electors had been deluged with emails, letters and phone calls from people hoping to convince electors not to cast their vote for Trump, but their pleas didn’t sway them.
Elector Nick DiCeglie, the Pinellas County GOP chair, Sunday said he received “thousands of letters, thousands of emails” asking him to reconsider. He showed reporters a picture of his home postbox filled with mail on Thursday.
Ingoglia mentioned the “awesome responsilbility we have as electors,” and added he hoped his colleague would look back and say, “We were part of history.”
The Associated Press contributed to this post, reprinted with permission.
