Sanders receives 18,000 Vermont votes for president
BURLINGTON, Vt. — More than 18,000 Vermont residents cast presidential votes for Bernie Sanders, despite his insistent appeals for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The total of Sanders write-in votes — 18,183, or about 5.7% of Vermont's presidential votes — is greater than the combined tallies for third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, according to official results.
Vermont is one of 10 states and the District of Columbia where write-in votes are tallied for unregistered candidates, according to The Washington Post. Before the election some Sanders supporters wrote online essays theorizing that he could win the presidency with a sufficient number of write-in votes.
Other write-in favorites in Vermont included Republicans Ohio Gov. John Kasich (823 votes), former CIA officer and House Republican aide Evan McMullin (629 votes) and Indiana Gov. Michael Pence (298 votes).
Clinton won Vermont's electoral votes with 55.7% of presidential ballots compared to Republican Donald Trump's 29.8%.
Voter registration in Vermont reached a record 471,619, according to the Vermont Secretary of State's Office. About 68% of registered voters cast ballots in the general election.
Since the election, Sanders has said he supports the Trump protesters. "People are angry. People are upset. And they want to express their point of view that they are very frightened, in very, very strong disagreement with Mr. Trump, who has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign."
He also joined demonstrators outside of the White House on Tuesday to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. In a tweet, he encouraged President Obama to "stop this pipeline anyway you can. Declare Standing Rock a national monument."
Contributing: Susan Page, Paste BN; Angelica Cabral, The Arizona Republic. Follow April McCullum on Twitter: @April_McCullum