Believe it or not, there is still a last-ditch effort out there to try and deny Donald Trump the presidency – by flipping his electoral college win.
The bipartisan effort to convince members of the Electoral College to vote for someone other than Trump started as a viral Change.Org petition that now has nearly 5 million signatures, making it the largest in the organization’s history.
The petition has snowballed from there. Social worker and Democratic activist Daniel Brezenoff – who made the petition – also created an “Electoral College Petition” group which has been rolling out short videos and on Wednesday, full-page ads telling Electoral College members to “Vote their conscience.”
The ads have appeared in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Austin American-Statesman, Salt Lake City Tribune and Tampa Bay Times. They are slated to run in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Wisconsin State Journal on Thursday. The letter is signed by a few state electors and a number of Political professors and activists.
The star of the ad, “A Loyal Republican,” is Christopher Suprun, the 30th Congressional District Electoral College member from Texas. Suprun, a Republican, has been one of the most outspoken electors rebelling against his pro-Trump constituents. In the ad Suprun explains why he doesn’t think Donald Trump “is the right man for the job.”
“He is not fit to lead our national security, having multiple conflicts of interest.” Suprun does not elaborate on what conflicts of interest he believes make Trump unfit to be president, but he does transition quickly to the CIA’s recent proclamation that the Kremlin tampered with the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump.
“It should concern every American whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Green Party member, or Libertarian, or just plain old independent,” Suprun says. “When a foreign government interferes with our election and tries to undermine it, much less pick favorites, our country’s in trouble.”
He goes on to call on “President Obama to release the data” from the CIA’s report and make it available to members of the Electoral College before December 19 – the day that the Electoral College would officially nominate Trump.
It is at least partly true that the Founding Fathers installed the Electoral College to act as a block against a majoritarian demagogue – you can thank Alexander Hamilton for that idea. Hence why this band of rogue electors calls itself the “Hamilton Electors.”
Depending on what report you decide to read, you may hear that as many as 20 electors are flipping their votes from Trump to Hillary Clinton. That number, as reported to the Hill from Harvard Professor turned political activist, Lawrence Lessig, is the biggest number reported so far. But even if there were 20 rogue electors looking to bar Trump, the “Hamilton Electors” would still need another 17 dissenters to join their cause to actually steal the election from Trump.
Nonetheless, Clinton still won the popular vote by about 3 million votes, making the 2016 election the fourth time in the country’s history that a president did not win the popular vote.
So the future of the Electoral College may be in jeopardy. However, the future Donald Trump presidency probably isn’t.
The bipartisan effort to convince members of the Electoral College to vote for someone other than Trump started as a viral Change.Org petition that now has nearly 5 million signatures, making it the largest in the organization’s history.
The petition has snowballed from there. Social worker and Democratic activist Daniel Brezenoff – who made the petition – also created an “Electoral College Petition” group which has been rolling out short videos and on Wednesday, full-page ads telling Electoral College members to “Vote their conscience.”
The ads have appeared in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Austin American-Statesman, Salt Lake City Tribune and Tampa Bay Times. They are slated to run in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Wisconsin State Journal on Thursday. The letter is signed by a few state electors and a number of Political professors and activists.
From Russia with Trump
Progressive PAC, MoveOn.Org – which has been on the war path against President-elect Trump – has now jumped into the electoral flipping game with a petition of their own, and a political ad calling on President Obama to “Declassify all evidence of Russian interference and hose briefing for electors before Electoral College votes on December 19.”The star of the ad, “A Loyal Republican,” is Christopher Suprun, the 30th Congressional District Electoral College member from Texas. Suprun, a Republican, has been one of the most outspoken electors rebelling against his pro-Trump constituents. In the ad Suprun explains why he doesn’t think Donald Trump “is the right man for the job.”
“He is not fit to lead our national security, having multiple conflicts of interest.” Suprun does not elaborate on what conflicts of interest he believes make Trump unfit to be president, but he does transition quickly to the CIA’s recent proclamation that the Kremlin tampered with the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump.
“It should concern every American whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Green Party member, or Libertarian, or just plain old independent,” Suprun says. “When a foreign government interferes with our election and tries to undermine it, much less pick favorites, our country’s in trouble.”
He goes on to call on “President Obama to release the data” from the CIA’s report and make it available to members of the Electoral College before December 19 – the day that the Electoral College would officially nominate Trump.
Can the Electoral College Deny Donald Trump the Presidency?
Can they? Yes. Will they? Almost certainly not.It is at least partly true that the Founding Fathers installed the Electoral College to act as a block against a majoritarian demagogue – you can thank Alexander Hamilton for that idea. Hence why this band of rogue electors calls itself the “Hamilton Electors.”
Depending on what report you decide to read, you may hear that as many as 20 electors are flipping their votes from Trump to Hillary Clinton. That number, as reported to the Hill from Harvard Professor turned political activist, Lawrence Lessig, is the biggest number reported so far. But even if there were 20 rogue electors looking to bar Trump, the “Hamilton Electors” would still need another 17 dissenters to join their cause to actually steal the election from Trump.
Nonetheless, Clinton still won the popular vote by about 3 million votes, making the 2016 election the fourth time in the country’s history that a president did not win the popular vote.
So the future of the Electoral College may be in jeopardy. However, the future Donald Trump presidency probably isn’t.