Electoral College members 'prepare to vote against Donald Trump'

At least half a dozen 'faithless voters' are pushing for major reform to the constitutional process

A number of Democrats have reportedly agreed to break with tradition and vote against Donald Trump when the Electoral College meets on December 19 in an unlikely attempt to block his presidency. 
At least half a dozen Democratic electors are preparing to lobby voters in other states in an attempt to keep the Republican out of the White House but, more significantly, also to undermine the legitimacy of the institution. 
The voters, who are mostly former Bernie Sanders supporters from Washington state and Colorado, are pushing for other electors to ignore their oaths by voting against Mr Trump.

It is extremely rare for an elector to disobey the will of the public, and in certain states voters are bound by state law to follow the popular vote. 
However, even if a number of “faithless electors” vote against convention, they're unlikely to persuade the necessary 37 Republican electors to reject Mr Trump.
At last count, Mr Trump had won 290 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton had gained 232. The results in Michigan, which has 16 electoral votes, remain too close to call. A 270-vote majority is needed for a candidate to win the presidency.

However the Democratic electors are pushing to undermine the entire Electoral College system and they hope their efforts could bring about major changes to the 228-year run constitutional process. 
"I do think that a byproduct would be a serious look into Electoral College reform," Democratic elector Micheal Baca, from Colorado, told Politico. 
"If it gets into the House, the controversy and the uncertainty that would immediately blow up into a political firestorm in the U.S. would cause enough people — my hope is — to look at the whole concept of the Electoral College," said another elector involved in the anti-Trump planning.

After a bloody campaign wounding both Democrat and Republican camps, the group is reportedly considering urging electors to also oppose Ms Clinton, and partner with Republicans in support of a new candidate like Mitt Romney or John Kasich. 
"If you could get eight or 10 Trump electors to vote for someone else then that would probably get people's attention," said George Edwards III, a political science professor and Electoral College expert at Texas A&M University. 
"We haven't ever had that many faithless electors in one election."
The Electoral College is made up of 538 members and the number of electors is determined by the number of senators and representatives for each state.
If the defectors go ahead with their plan on 19 December, it will be the most “faithless electors” since 1808, when six declined to vote for James Madison.
The Electoral College has becoming increasingly problematic for the Democratic party in recent years. In 2000, George W. Bush took to the White House despite Al Gore winning the popular vote. In 2016, Ms Clinton led the popular vote over Mr Trump by about 1.7 million votes as of Monday morning.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/electoral-college-popular-vote-donald-trump-us-election-win-hillary-clinton-a7433271.html

When considering doing that, maybe they will keep this in mind :


Computer scientists say they have strong evidence election was rigged against Clinton in three key states
Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were potentially manipulated, according to prominent computer scientists and lawyers who have spoken with the Clinton campaign

A group of renowned computer scientists and lawyers have urged Hillary Clinton to challenge the election results in three key states after they gathered "evidence" to suggest the election results were potentially manipulated.
The group of activists, including voting rights lawyer John Bonifaz and J Alex Halderman, director of the University of Michigan's center for computer security and society, believe their evidence shows that results in these three battleground states - which lost Ms Clinton the election on 8 November - might have been hacked.
As reported by New York Magazine, the group is not speaking on the record but is privately lobbying Clinton’s team to challenge the election results.

In Wisconsin, Ms Clinton received 7 per cent fewer votes in counties that depended on electronic-voting machines compared to countries that used optical scanners and paper ballots, and consequently Ms Clinton may have lost up to 30,000 votes. She lost Wisconsin by 27,000 votes.
The group has already held a call with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and campaign general counsel Marc Elias to argue that while they have not found conclusive evidence of a hack, the pattern in their results merits an independent review.
Ms Clinton has made no indication she would challenge the results and the White House is intent on a smooth transition.
The deadline to file for a vote recount is between Friday and next Wednesday for the three states.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/wisconsin-michigan-pennsylvania-election-hillary-clinton-hacked-manipulated-donald-trump-swing-a7433091.html



Bring back Bernie I say.

Bernie would be a great solution.

sassy wrote:When considering doing that, maybe they will keep this in mind :


Computer scientists say they have strong evidence election was rigged against Clinton in three key states
Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were potentially manipulated, according to prominent computer scientists and lawyers who have spoken with the Clinton campaign
...

What good will it do?  The challengers will fail and then be labelled 'disgruntled sour losers' into the bargain. I don't know of any major election results that was reversed on technicalities - remember the hanging chads scandal?  No use trying to shame Trump into conceding anything either. A guy with his brand of rhetoric is quite obviously devoid of shame.

'Somebody tell them they're dreaming  !'

They simply won't have the numbers to overturn anything.. Considering they couldn't get half the eligible Democrat voters to actually cast their vote !!!


Methinks it could be that the organisers of this dissent are more likely taking the longer view --  hoping to get some serious discussion going, re: reforming the US Electoral College voting system --  rather than honestly expecting to change the actual election results  ???

Yes. Democracy has spoken. Albeit very flawed this time. These democrats and computer scientist  should simply document their findings (for the history books) and then let it go. Then try and channel their energies in a positive direction

Trump's win was due to a number of factors all coming together in a way that worked in his favour.  And even then, his popular vote count was nothing special compared to Bush senior and junior's era. But a win's a win.

sassy wrote:Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were potentially manipulated,

From day one I have wondered.  There's been so much talk of rigging from Trump that I had the feeling he was deflecting by generating dissent from the wrong side.  His association with the Russians is a little too cozy.

This is one time I will agree with eddie. There is a little too much coincidence to swallow.