By now, you’re probably aware of the movement within the Electoral College to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the 45th President of the United States on January 20.
But in case you’ve spent the past five weeks unable to hear any media reports over the sound of your own weeping, allow us to bring you up to speed on the last sliver of hope for Democrats and moderate Republicans.
As we reported last week, it’s beginning to look as though there’s a real chance that Trump can be stopped by faithless electors.
Republican elector Christopher Suprun has vowed to vote against Trump, and he’s encouraged others to follow his lead.
One Florida elector has decided to step down rather than cast a vote for Trump, but he’ll almost certainly be replaced by someone willing to toe the party line.
So that means the 36 more Republican electors would need to defect in order to prevent Trump from being appointed America’s next president.
But the Hamilton Electors (so named for the Founding Father’s Federalist Paper No. 68, from which they draw their inspiration) aren’t losing hope for two very important reasons:
For one thing, there are reports of a new strategy, wherein Democratic electors would choose a suitable Republican politician (Mitt Romney and John Kasich seem to be the front-runners) in hopes of encouraging their GOP counterparts to follow suit.
Additionally, rumblings from within the EC are offering hope to electors who may have been on the fence due to concerns that their dissent would be fruitless.
“Obviously, whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same,” Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig tells Politico.
“We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote.”
Lessig – who has been offering free legal counsel to potential faithless electors – says he believes at least 20 electors are planning to defect, and that the Hamilton movement will likely have a snowball effect, picking up more supporters as it grows in size.
“[Electors] are looking at is the best chance we have of stopping Trump than at any other point during this process,” Lessig says.
The RNC maintains that Suprun is the only faithless elector that they are aware of, and Salon reported Tuesday that potential Hamilton Electors have been threatened with political reprisal.
The Electoral College results won’t be known until December 19, but whatever the outcome, this is the first time in modern history that the EC’s final tally is considered anything less that a sure thing – a fact that should remind Trump of how much work he has to do if he’s genuine about his professed desire to re-unify a divided nation.
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