The six Kansas members of the Electoral College are, from left, State Treasurer Ron Estes, Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kelly Arnold, Republican National Committeewoman Helen Van Etten, Kansas GOP Vice-Chair Ashley J. McMillan, GOP National Committeeman Mark Kahrs, and Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker. The six came together for a photograph before casting their votes for the President of the United States in the Senate chambers of the Kansas Statehouse on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. All six members voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

Topeka ? A chorus of boos came from the gallery of the Kansas Senate chamber Monday, and many turned their backs to the Senate floor as the state’s electoral college met and officially cast their six votes for President-elect Donald J. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

The outcome of the vote was never in doubt, but several dozen protesters had shown up at the Capitol anyway to express their displeasure at the outcome.

“I have concerns about the Electoral College and the degree to which it actually represents the will of the American people,” said Kara Kendall-Morwick, of Lawrence. “But I think if it does have one purpose in our time, it is to prevent someone like Donald Trump from ascending to the presidency.”

Protesters in the gallery turn their backs as Kansas' six members of the Electoral College cast their votes for the President of the United States in the Senate chambers of the Kansas Statehouse on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. All six members voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

The meeting of the Electoral College is usually a somber and low-key ceremony that carries out provisions of the U.S. Constitution, which says that presidents and vice presidents are chosen by electors from each state, and that each state gets the same number of electors as it has in Congress.

In all but two states, the winner of the popular vote in a given state gets all of that state’s electoral votes. But this year, the Electoral College system has generated more controversy than usual, in part because Trump actually lost the popular vote nationwide by more than 2.8 million votes, and in part because of allegations of Russian meddling in the election and Trump’s own perceived conflicts of interest.

But for the six people chosen to serve as this year’s electors from Kansas, there was never any question about which way they would vote.

“Absolutely not, because being electors we are voting for the voice of Kansas, where the majority, 57 percent, came out and voted for Donald Trump,” said Helen Van Etten, Kansas Republican national committeewoman.

Outside the Statehouse, about 20 people gathered in single-digit temperatures for a rally before the official ceremony. It began with a reading from Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers, No. 68, in which he argued that the Electoral College was meant to be a safeguard to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”

Many more people, though, chose to gather in the warmth inside, where they mingled around the entrance to the chamber, hoping to catch the electors as they came in, or in the gallery overlooking the proceedings.

Some, like Barbara Holzmark of Johnson County, said she thinks it’s time to do away with the Electoral College.

“Absolutely,” she said, pointing to the difference between the popular and electoral votes. “It’s unlikely to happen, but it happened.”

But Bob Faris, of Ozawkie, said he’s in favor of keeping the Electoral College, but believes the electors should perform as Hamilton envisioned.

“I hope the Electoral College will work today as it can be worked, that the electors here in Kansas and elsewhere in the country feel free to exercise their own judgment,” he said. “That’s the way this was designed, not necessarily to be just a rubber stamp.”

But Kansas GOP executive director Clay Barker said the purpose of the Electoral College has changed since Hamilton wrote that treatise in 1788.

“I understand it’s evolved over time with the development of political parties,” he said. “They each put up a candidate and slate of electors so the people in each state are actually electing the slate of electors. I see it as our duty to do what they wanted us to do, which was vote for Trump in Kansas.”

Republican national committeeman Mark Kahrs, another elector, said he fully supports the Electoral College system.

“It’s worked for our country since its birth,” he said. “It provides a constitutional way of ensuring that all of America supports the president. We don’t have a regional presidency or a coastal presidency. All the states participate. It’s important for smaller states like Kansas in the Midwest, and I think it’s an important function of our Constitution.”