COLUMBUS (WCMH/AP) – Ohio’s 18 Electoral College members have voted to support Republican Donald Trump.

The group voted Monday at the Ohio Statehouse. Their support formalizes Trump’s general election victory in the battleground state last month.

They acted as the cries of hundreds of protesters could be heard outside the Senate chamber. They demonstrated to push for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Clinton won the popular vote nationally, but secured just 43 percent of the vote in Ohio compared to Trump’s 51 percent.

Cuyahoga County elector Ed Crawford led the fundraising effort for the Trump campaign in Ohio.

“I’m excited for America. I think we got the right man at the right time in the right place,” Crawford said.

The electors, including Leonard Hubert from Central Ohio, were deluged with emails, phone calls and letters urging them not to support Donald Trump.

“Saturday I probably got 400 to 500 letters at home which doesn’t  take into account the letters that I received at the office,” Hubert said.

And when they arrived at the statehouse, the electors were greeted by more than 100 protesters and chants of dissent. Hazel Goodburn, of Clintonville took to the protest line with her mother Leigh.

“Even if it doesn’t change anything, I mean I think people are recorded in history as saying, ‘hey I have a problem with this’,” Goodburn said.

An Ohio state law bound electors to vote for the nominee of the party that appointed them, which this year was the Republicans.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former Trump rival, was pulled into Monday’s process to help oversee replacement of an elector who had resigned. He urged unity.The Associated Press contributed to this report.