Luling man gets 20K emails asking he vote for Hillary Clinton

Monti is serving in Electoral College

While this has been Garrett Monti’s second year to serve as an elector for the United States Electoral College by Louisiana’s Republican Party, his experience has been anything but similar.

Monti said he has received more than 20,000 messages through e-mail petitioning him to change his electoral vote from President-elect Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, though he adds he had zero plans to do so. Trump earned 58.1 percent of the vote in Louisiana (1.7 million), while Clinton got 38.4 percent (779,535), earning him Louisiana’s eight electoral votes, one of which cast by Monti.

“Not at all,” Monti said of whether the push has swayed him. “The voters of Louisiana overwhelmingly voted in favor of casting my vote for Donald Trump … I take my responsibility very seriously.”

As the Louisiana percentage might reflect, Monti said very few of the messages have come from in-state residents.

“The majority of the requests were from out of state, generally from states that favored Hillary,” Monti said. “The arguments tend to be that Trump is unfit, or that Clinton won the popular vote.”

In the days since the Nov. 8 election, a wide range of emotions have been on display.

Trump’s victory has inspired protests throughout the nation and a wide range of criticism, while a contentious election season that saw both candidates vigorously attack one another has seemingly helped create highly polarized opinions of each.

While Monti said he’s received no direct threats, he noted that some of the messages were “pretty aggressive.” “I would have never thought of anything like this. This has been a largely ceremonial position,” Monti said.

Monti served as an elector for the 2012 election, in which Louisiana favored then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

“I received six pieces of mail concerning that one,” Monti said. “Nothing that really stood out at all. This has been sort of unprecedented.”

The U.S. Electoral College is the body that elects the president and vice president every four years. Citizens choose electors to cast the votes. Monti was one of 538 people in the nation who serve as an elector this year. He will officially cast his vote in Baton Rouge on Dec. 19.

 

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