The election is finally over. Donald Trump will be the next president.
The decision came Monday, amid demonstrations in Little Rock and other state capitals as electors in the respective states cast those decisive Electoral College votes.
The outcome, expected since the Nov. 8 general election decidedly gave the Electoral College advantage to Trump, nevertheless sparked vocal opposition.
Arkansas voters strongly favored the Republican nominee in the November vote and the state's six electors followed the voters' collective bidding on Monday, casting all six of Arkansas' electoral votes for Trump.
Protesters packed the inside of the state Capitol's Old Supreme Court Chamber, some hoisting signs that declared "No Trump" and "Not My President." Reportedly, there was a brief shouting match that prompted a warning from Secretary of State Mark Martin that he'd have the room cleared.
Capitol police later escorted a woman out, but the scene in Little Rock was apparently fairly tame.
Elsewhere, protests were larger and more rowdy.
In the end, electors voted pretty much as they were pledged. Only seven went down in the history books as "faithless" electors.
Trump lost a couple of Texas electors, who switched their votes to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Democrat Hillary Clinton had five defectors, one in Hawaii who voted for Vermont's U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and four in Washington state. Kasich got one of those votes, while three went to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the last to Faith Spotted Eagle, an American Indian tribal leader.
In all, Trump got 304 electoral votes and Clinton 227. I takes 270 to win the presidency.
Nevermind that 2.8 million more American voters preferred Clinton. That popular vote just doesn't seem to matter.
There's an argument to be made that it does matter, at least in terms of perceptions.
Trump, like George W. Bush 16 years earlier, will always be a president who lost the general election, a distinction held by only three other presidents, each elected in the 1800s.
If you're curious, the number of electors from each state is based on their respective congressional delegations. Each state gets one elector for each of its House of Representatives seats and one for each of its two senators. In Arkansas, that adds up to six electors.
Some states, including tiny Delaware and expansive Alaska, have just three electors because their respective populations are so small. Heavily populated California, with 55 electors, has the most.
The whole point of the Electoral College is to give smaller states a bit more of a say in a presidential election than they would have if the popular vote settled the matter.
Nevertheless, there have been repeated efforts to change the system, including an ongoing one.
A group called National Popular Vote started the effort in 2005, trying to get enough states -- with at least 270 electoral votes among them -- to sign on to an interstate compact.
The agreement would be for electors in the participating states to cast electoral votes to reflect the national popular vote.
So far, only the District of Columbia and 10 Democratic-leaning states have agreed. They collectively have 165 electoral votes, so the compact isn't worth much now. The effort needs states with 105 more electoral votes to sign on to trigger the agreement.
The attraction, if there is one to this approach, is that it can be accomplished more easily than passing a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College.
According to the Web site for National Popular Vote, participating states would have to agree that their electors, regardless of an election's outcome in their individual states, would vote for the winner of the national popular vote.
Arkansas electors, for example, if this state had agreed to participate this year, would have had to vote for Hillary Clinton, even though this state voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
It would be mighty hard for Arkansas lawmakers, themselves largely Republican, to explain to Arkansas voters why they might make such a deal.
This particular attempt at Electoral College reform isn't likely to succeed. States will debate it, of course. Arkansas lawmakers have in the past and might again.
Most likely, however, the attention on the Electoral College will continue to be a civics lesson relearned every four years.
Granted, Donald Trump's presidency, as it unfolds, may bring more interest in some sort of reform, just not necessarily in support of the National Popular Vote approach.
Commentary on 12/21/2016