Faithless Electors 2016: Why Are They All From States Won By Hillary? They Will Be Voting Against Her
The election for President of the United States is not officially over until the Electoral College votes on December 19. According to election results, Donald Trump won 306 Electoral Votes to Hillary Clinton’s 232. In order to win the election, a candidate only needs 270 Electoral Votes. By this data, Trump is considered the Presiden-elect, but the Electoral College has not made their votes official yet and there is still a chance that they could make sure Trump does not get those 270 votes due to faithless electors voting against the way their state voted on Election Day.
What is a faithless elector?
According to FaireVote.org, a faithless elector is a selected member of the Electoral College who refuses to vote the way the state that they represent has voted. A faithless elector is a rarity when you look back in history. Ever since the Electoral College was founded, only 157 people have been considered to be faithless electors. There have never been enough faithless electors in an election to change the result of what happened on Election Day. Since he has 306 electoral votes, Trump would need to cause 37 people to become faithless electors in order to put him under the 270 votes needed to become President of the United States.
There has been a large push for faithless electors to step forward on December 19 since Hillary Clinton leads in the popular vote by 2 million votes. Many people believe that this should be enough proof that Hillary Clinton should be President.
According to the Guardian, seven faithless electors have made their intentions known that they will be voting against how their state voted. The group of faithless electors are calling themselves the “Hamilton Electors.” The latest faithless elector is Levi Guerra.
“I stand behind Hamilton electors. I promised those who elected me that I would do everything I could to keep Donald Trump out of office.”
These “Hamilton Electors” have a core belief in which they feel the members of the Electoral College has to have a moral responsibility to ensure that people like Donald Trump never get to set foot in the White House.
Guerra is an elector from Washington. Hillary Clinton won the 12 Electoral Votes from the state by a substantial margin. Guerra should be casting her vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19, but instead, plans on writing in a Republican other than Trump as a way to protest a Donald Trump victory. Guerra will officially break away from the Democratic Party in order to stand with the other faithless electors.
“I’m only 19 and this is my first time being involved in politics, but I hope that my willingness to put my country before my party will show that my generation cares about all Americans.”
The strange thing about the seven faithless electors is that all are coming from states in which Hillary Clinton was victorious. These electors will be voting against Hillary Clinton in order to protest a Donald Trump presidency. So far no electors from states won by Donald Trump have publically stated they would be voting against him when the Electoral College meets. The only person from a state that Trump won that may be protesting the Electoral Vote is Art Sisneros. Sisneros was an elector from Texas who has resigned.
“He is not someone who would rule justly or wisely. His track record shows that he is a man of coveting and self-serving – a liar and a cheat should not hold that position.”
The last time more than one elector has vowed to vote against their state was in 1912.
Does this make any sense that all the faithless electors are coming from states won by Hillary Clinton?
[Featured Image By Evan Vucci/AP Images]
