ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s 10 presidential electors cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton on Monday after a brief moment of drama involving a so-called faithless elector.

Clinton won the state last month and the electors were pledged to support her, but one elector, Muhammad Abdurrahman, cast his ballot for Bernie Sanders.

Abdurrahman’s ballot was immediately tossed out as required by law, and an alternate took his place. The final vote was completed soon after.

Abdurrahman was a Sanders delegate from Minnesota to the Democratic National Convention. He said his vote was a protest of the state’s law that requires electors to follow the statewide vote.

“The law … says that, but the Constitution doesn’t say that,” he said, declining to answer other questions after the vote.

A crowd of anti-Trump protesters urging electors to delay their vote cheered as Abdurrahman’s vote was invalidated.

After pausing for a minute when Abdurrahman handed in his ballot, Secretary of State Steve Simon briefly took Abdurrahman aside, shook his hand and immediately brought up an alternate elector to be sworn in.

Simon said his office had prepared for a faithless elector.

Abdurrahman is the state’s first faithless elector since 2004. That’s when an unidentified elector wrote John Edwards’ name on the ballot for president. Edwards was running mate to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that year.

The 2004 episode spurred the very state law that Abdurrahman took issue with during Monday’s vote.