Faithless electors group in contact with Clinton allies

The group of Democratic electors who are trying to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president have been in contact with Clinton allies. Politico reports:

Advocates of the long-shot bid to turn the Electoral College against Donald Trump have been in contact with close allies of Hillary Clinton, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions, but the Clinton camp — and Clinton herself — have declined to weigh in on the merits of the plan…

In a sign of the sensitivity of the issue, former Clinton campaign officials declined repeated requests to comment on the Electoral College effort. DNC officials also failed to respond to requests for comment.

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Like the recount effort, which the Clinton campaign joined after it was announced by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, this is another attempt to change the results of the election that is going nowhere. The so-called Hamilton electors, who have agreed to change their votes on December 19th when the electors meet and vote, are nearly all Democrats pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton. In a bid to sway GOP electors away from their commitments the Democrats are promising to vote instead for Republican John Kasich:

“Many Electors are saying that Governor John Kasich would be best for our country. A consensus is beginning to form that Governor Kasich would be best positioned to unite America,” said Micheal Baca, in a statement to POLITICO on Sunday. Other electors involved in the effort confirmed this line of thinking.

So far only one Republican elector has indicated a willingness to switch his (or her) vote, however that person has not been identified. Since Trump won the election with 306 electoral votes, at least 37 Republicans would need to change their minds in the next two weeks (36 more if it’s true that one GOP elector has already agreed to change his vote) to stop Trump from becoming president.

As I mentioned here, the faithless electors have an ulterior motive. What they really want is to do away with the electoral college entirely. That won’t happen overnight, but they reason it could happen if Americans become disenchanted with the current system. So even if it’s only Hillary’s electors who change their votes this year that’s still a break with tradition which could eventually lead to more electors breaking ranks in the future and that could lead to more Americans deciding the system isn’t reliable.

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The left is always playing the long game but in this case they’re not going to get anywhere in short run.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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David Strom 11:20 AM | November 21, 2024
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