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Colorado Faithless Elector Michael Baca Is Trying To Steal Trump’s Electoral Votes And The White House [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 01:34 PST, Nov 17, 2016

The American people spoke with their votes on November 8, and Donald Trump pulled off an Electoral College win; however, he will never be POTUS if Michael Baca, a faithless elector from Colorado, has anything to say about it. That’s because, despite the 122 million ballots that were casts and the literal billions of dollars spent on ads trying to sway the vote, one member of the Electoral College is trying to change the face of the entire 2016 race.

And, if he pulls it off, change the outcome of one of the most hotly contested and widely disputed elections in recent American history.

As 9 News reports, Colorado faithless elector Michael Baca is actively working to convince Electoral College members from across the United States to refuse to cast their electoral votes for Donald Trump. He’s not trying to put Hillary in the White House, though; he thinks that would be too much of an impossible feat. Rather, he is trying to scrounge together more potentially faithless electors, electors that would do almost anything to avoid a Trump presidency.

If Michael Baca can get enough members of the Electoral College to play ball, they can conceivably circle their wagons around a “moderate Republican” of their choosing. The theory is that, without the electoral votes of Michael Baca and other faithless electors, Trump would end up shy of the 270 he needs to clinch the presidency. Then, the decision of who becomes POTUS is in the hands of the House of Representatives.

While the video above clearly indicates that an anti-Trump electoral coup is impossible, that’s what many thought about a Trump victory. As 270 to Win reports, allowing the House of Representatives to decide on the next U.S. president could be a disaster for Donald Trump, particularly if the presidential choices handed down by the Electoral College, faithless electors and all, included Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and a moderate Republican candidate. In the unlikely event that the House of Representatives has to decide this (or any other) presidential election outcome, each state’s delegation would get one vote, and the winner would simply need to garner the majority of the 50 votes.

If Colorado faithless elector Michael Baca can convince enough members of the Electoral College to jump ship that Trump is denied his 270 and his electoral win, Mike Pence will also be on the chopping block. In the event that neither party gets to 270 electoral votes, the VP is determined by the Senate, with senators (two for each state) getting a vote, and the winner being determined by simple majority.

Colorado faithless elector Michael Baca has been referring to himself as a “Hamilton Elector,” and he claims that he has at least six other faithless electors from across the country ready to get on board with his plan. While he’s going to need more than that, it’s important to remember that the election was only last week.

The Electoral College, faithless electors and all, doesn’t vote until December 19. In theory, that gives Michael Baca plenty of time to round up the support he might need to put his #NeverTrump plan into action. If his plan is going to work, faithless elector Michael Baca is going to need more than a bunch more faithless electors behind him, he’s going to need them to come together for a common goal, namely to keep President-Elect Trump out of the White House.

“There’s a chance that by coming together, we can avoid a Donald Trump presidency. But it’s going to take a unification of Americans, I believe.”

As the Colorado faithless elector’s own political history demonstrates, his plan to upend the Electoral College and sway the results of the 2016 election in a direction of his own choosing is bigger than party affiliation. Michael Baca is a registered Democrat, and he even supported Bernie Sanders in the primary election. However, the Colorado faithless elector is willing to throw all of that away, not to mention “break faith,” to put a moderate Republican in the White House in place of Donald Trump.

But why does Michael Baca want to keep Trump out of the White House so badly that he’s willing to break his Electoral College pledge and Colorado law to try to make it happen? According to Baca, it’s a matter of values.

“I’m a former U.S. Marine and the core values are honor, courage, commitment. I don’t believe Donald Trump has that.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_opxucnf0

As the Electoral College currently stands, Donald Trump is holding onto an impressive 290 electoral votes, meaning that the Colorado faithless elector has quite a bit of ground to make up before he even begins to set Trump back below the 270 threshold.

And if he does follow through with his plan to vote against the will of the people of Colorado (who voted for Hillary Clinton, which means that Michael Baca and the state’s eight other electors are obligated to do the same) he will be in violation of state law.

However, there is no federal law that requires electors to vote the will of the people in the state they represent. While some states (including Colorado) utilize so-called “pledged electors” who are supposed to be bound to the outcome of their respective state’s popular vote, nearly as many other states do not. In the states that do require their electors to vote the people’s will, the legal penalties for failing to do so are mild. Some penalize faithless electors with a small fine, while others toss their faithless electoral votes out of the count altogether.

Michael Baca doesn’t seem to care about the legal penalties for being a faithless elector, so long as it keeps the President-Elect from becoming the POTUS on December 19.

“I did violate my word. The votes have not been casted left. We have 34 days. And we’ll see how the election turns out. But I don’t think that the majority of the American public would mind if we avoided a Donald Trump presidency.”

What do you think? Do you think that Baca’s efforts may ultimately sway the outcome of the 2016 election? Do you think it is ethical that he’s even trying? What are your thoughts regarding faithless Colorado elector Michael Baca and/or faithless electors in general?

[Featured Image by karenfoleyphotography/Shutterstock]

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