AP:
There’s more hustle than hope behind an effort to derail Donald Trump’s presidency in the Electoral College.
Republican electors are being swamped with pleas to buck tradition and cast ballots for someone else at meetings across the country Monday that are on course to ratify Trump as the winner. AP interviews with more than 330 electors from both parties found little appetite for a revolt.
Whether they like Trump or not, and some plainly don’t, scores of the Republicans chosen to cast votes in the state-capital meetings told AP they feel bound by history, duty, party loyalty or the law to rubber-stamp their state’s results and make him president. Appeals numbering in the tens of thousands — drowning inboxes, ringing cellphones, stuffing home and office mailboxes with actual handwritten letters — have not swayed them.
The interviews found widespread Democratic aggravation with the electoral process but little expectation that the rush of anti-Trump maneuvering can stop him. For that to happen, Republican-appointed electors would have to stage an unprecedented defection.
Still, people going to the typically ho-hum electoral gatherings have been drawn into the rough and tumble of campaign-season politics. Republicans are being beseeched to revolt in a torrent of lobbying, centered on the arguments that Clinton won the popular vote and that Trump is unsuited to the presidency. Most of it is falling on deaf ears, but it has also led to some acquaintances being made across the great political divide.
“Let me give you the total as of right now: 48,324 emails about my role as an elector,” said Brian Westrate, a small-business owner and GOP district chairman in Fall Creek, Wisconsin. “I have a Twitter debate with a former porn star from California asking me to change my vote. It’s been fascinating.”
Similarly deluged, Republican elector Hector Maldonado, a Missouri National Guardsman, has taken the time to console one correspondent, a single mother and Air Force veteran who is beside herself with worry about what a Trump presidency will mean.
“Everything’s going to be OK,” he said he told her. “I know you’re scared, but don’t worry. Everything’s going to be OK. And I know that it will be.”
Maldonado, a Mexican immigrant and medical-equipment seller in Sullivan, Missouri, backed Ted Cruz in the primaries but will cast his vote for Trump with conviction. “I took an oath once to become a U.S. citizen,” he said, “and on Aug. 14, 1995, that was the first oath that I’ve taken to support the U.S. Constitution. A year later I took the oath again, to support the duties of being an officer in the U.S. Army. This was the third oath that I’ve taken to execute what I promised to do.”
Even a leader of the anti-Trump effort, Bret Chiafalo of Everett, Washington, calls it a “losing bet” — but one he says the republic’s founders would want him to make. “I believe that Donald Trump is a unique danger to our country and the Founding Fathers put the Electoral College in place to, among other things, stop that from happening,” said Chiafalo, 38, an Xbox network engineer who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
It takes 270 electoral votes to make a president. Despite losing the national popular vote, Trump won enough states to total 306 electoral votes. He would need to see three dozen fall away for him to lose his majority. Only one Republican elector told AP he won’t vote for Trump.
Over the sweep of history, so-called faithless electors — those who vote for someone other than their state’s popular-vote winner — have been exceptionally rare.
Nashville attorney Tom Lawless, who chose Marco Rubio in the primaries, described his vow to cast his electoral vote for Trump in blunt terms. “Hell will freeze and we will be skating on the lava before I change,” he said. “He won the state and I’ve pledged and gave my word that that’s what I would do. And I won’t break it.”
Nor will Jim Skaggs, 78, a developer from Bowling Green, Kentucky, despite deep concern about Trump. “His personality worries me,” Skaggs said. “He is not open-minded.” Skaggs knew Trump’s father through the construction business, met the son in his 20s, and “I wasn’t impressed.”
“I hope he is far better than I think he is,” Skaggs said. Even so, “I fully intend to vote for Donald Trump,” he said. “I think it’s a duty.”
State law and practices vary for electors, but even in states where electors don’t take an oath to vote a certain way or don’t face legal ramifications for stepping out of line, the heavy expectation is for them to ratify the results. As much as they don’t want Trump in office, some Democrats are as reluctant as Republicans to go rogue.
“We lost the election,” said John Padilla of Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Democratic ward chairman. “That’s how elections are and you shake hands with your opponent and you get on with what you have to do and support your candidate.”
Stupid stuborn demacrats time to twist their tails realy realy hard and make them take notice Enough is Enough
Nancy Pelosi’s daughter (a member of the EC) actually believes (or at least claims to believe) that the EC is a deliberative body.
It is not.
The only meeting it is supposed to have is AFTER the election, the EC members of the WINNING side get together in EACH state and cast their votes.
That’s it.
The losers have no meeting.
The entire EC NEVER gets together.
Monday will be a great day for president-elect Trump.
Perhaps it will be a watershed moment for Hillary supporters, too.
Perhaps then they will move from Stage Two of the 5 stages of grief* to Stage Three.
*
1 denial,
2 anger,
3 bargaining,
4 depression and
5 acceptance.
@Nanny G: Actually, they went ahead and combined stage 1,2 and 4. 3 won’t happen, 5 probably won’t happen either. They are in strong denial and depression.
@Nanny G: I read that not a single high school band in D.C has accepted an invitation to march in the Inaugural Day Parade..
Unprecedented–spelling correct.
@Rich Wheeler:
How many single high school bands are there in DC. Why would they be invited? Are there any Married high school bands in DC?
You’re not naive enough to think that Trump taps out his Tweets are you?
I guess you know by now that the flake in Texas that says he won’t vote for Trump is a fraud. He was not a ‘first responder’ on 9/11. All made up. Typical liberal.
@RedTeam: Actually GOP elector Chris Suprum is a self proclaimed “Reagan Repub.” “This guy Trump ain’t no Reagan” says Suprum..
Thanks for pointing out the bands that are rejecting Trump consist of single high school kids. Thought that was obvious.
@Rich Wheeler: How did DC vote, Rich?
Hillary 90.9% of the votes.
Trump 4.1%
Others 2.1%
Johnson 1.6%
Stein 1.4%
Why would ANYONE expect a DC HS band to volunteer to play in Trump’s behalf?
@Rich Wheeler: Are you saying that “Reagan Republicans (Democrats?) would only vote for ”another Reagan?”
Wow!
I guess he’ll sit out the rest of his life as a voter, no?
@Rich Wheeler:
Turns out this guy is a dirtbag fraud, go ahead and hitch your reins to this scumbag….
https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/178083
back to ‘missing comments’ again. I wrote a response to No. 4 last night. As of this writing there is no No. 5 so this should post as comment 5 Wonder what is causing this problem.
@Rich Wheeler:
Actually he has now been shown to be a total fraud. He is currently unemployed. He was never an employee of any emergency response group that responded to 9/11. He only worked with the company he went to work for in Oct 01 for a short time and has been unemployed since. He wears a uniform with no identifying emblems on it. Sounds like a Dimo plant.
@Rich Wheeler:
you said ‘single hiigh school band’, you didn’t reference the kids in the bands. I just was wondering if most bands are single or why not invite ‘married bands’.
@Rich Wheeler: They have high schools in Washington DC?
@July 4th American: I guess we will need to find Ms. Lynch on an airport flight line to request her to enforce the duly enacted law (or Not).
comment 5 for the 3rd time
@Marine72:
Judging by the bands, they must have single high schools in Washington. No married ones. But clearly it is a waste of taxpayer money to have High schools in DC. No one is learning anything there.
@Marine72:
I find it very suspicious that Slick had to wait for Hillary to get out of town for him to rendevous with Lynch. Don’t know which one of them was desperate, Slick usually likes them a lot younger.
@Marine72:
Many thought there could not be a worse AG than Eric “the red” Holder. Many are now resigned to the former realizing the latter is in fact worse….
Today is the day, we will see if this hulaballooo is just a false flag for something that congress or senate needed cover for like the bill to silence independent media? Germany wants to fine Facebook for not removing posts they feel offensive 500K euros, but he was busy trying to make it china compliant and using Snopes to check out all the “fake” news ..I know did coffee come out your nose?
No surprise about the Bands, the HS are going to be made to teach the kids now bot just program them to be ignorant and compliant. Competition from Charter Schools, now colleges will have competition as well, 2 year cramming just the subject with on the job experience gets you certification and experience at the same time. The world is changing it could be a shock for the liberals that cant adapt, but we need frycooks, waitresses, receptionists and the like.
Donald Trump will be president if he is successful, it will be the death of the Democrat Party unless they wake up and adapt.
Tweets by BNODesk
LIVE coverage of the EC vote.
As of 6 mins ago:
Trump now has 125 electoral votes, Clinton has 83.
2:40 PM Trump 215 Hillary 97
@kitt: When the announcement was made about Facebook censoring ‘fake news’ and who they were going to use to verify news stories, it became very obvious that they equate ‘liberal news’ with being ‘real news’. Rather humorous.
at 4:00 count is now 245 -128 other 4
5:28 304 166 others 6
Bulletin: Russian Ambassador killed in Turkey
Berlin terrorist attack
Obama playing golf!
@RedTeam: Very humorous.Snopes heehe
A triggered dem woman had to be removed from WI statehouse screaming at electors as the cast all 10 for DJT I hope they put her in a nice padded room so she doesnt harm herself. She can share Gregs ward http://americanlookout.com/watch-unhinged-leftist-…
Well, for all the shenanigans, Only two Republican electors were traitors and should be deported to some country that doesn’t expect people to obey laws and rules. But the best part is that Hillary had more defectors than Trump, so that means they realized what she really is and there was no way they could cast a vote for her in good conscience. And yes, they were wrong to not vote as committed also.
And for those that don’t recall, my prediction was that Trump would get over 300 votes.
@kitt: I’m sure Greg would appreciate a guy in his ward.
As I was leaving Walmart about an hour ago, sitting on the bench in the doorway, I heard ” Trump, that son of a bitch is lucky someone hasn’t killed him. “
Thanks to the Electoral Collage system, we will now have a president that most American voters voted against. Over 2.8 million more voted against him than for him, to be specific.
I suppose I can still honestly assert my position that more Americans are smart enough to know what Donald Trump is than are not. It’s just that this doesn’t always matter.
Over 2.8 million popular votes less… Congratulations, America. The Oval Office will soon be occupied by the biggest loser in the history of the nation.
Just to make sure I’m keeping up…
Jill Stein (channeling Hillary) wanted a recount of the votes in three states – which wound up increasing the vote count for Trump rather than Hillary.
After all the angst, whining, threatening, advising, cajoling, etc. of the Electors requesting they ‘do the right thing’ (per the opinion of those who wanted Trump to commit to accepting the outcome of the vote, but won’t do so themselves), more Electors defected from Hillary than Trump.
Haven’t had this much to laugh about in oh, about 8 years.
@RedTeam: If they could only get it in their BB sized grey matter Trump ran on getting Americans jobs MAGA, Hillary ran on getting herself a job first woman prez, I guess we voted selfishly for jobs for us not her.
Funny during the election the libs banged on the electoral thinking by Trump gathering he would take popular vote, now its a 180.
But the bitter clingers will cry and continue to try to oust the President elect by hook or crook, more the latter.
They all get it in the end http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/snl-its-a-wonderful-life-lost-ending/81249131/
@Greg: We were very fortunate to have avoided having a proven lying criminal installed in the Presidency. It would have been obscene to have someone with such low regard and disrespect for the Justice system finagled into the White House by an administration with such low regard and disrespect for our Constitution.
Trump has been vilified by our venomous, corrupt, liberal media. Of particularly fantastic extreme is the accusation that Trump is a fascist, though he has never shown a single characteristic of fascism while his opponents (YOUR side, Greg) has employed fascist tactics against him. So far, Trump has exceeded expectation with exemplary selections for his staff and cabinet and the mindless criticism from the left exposes how unfamiliar they are with a real resume’.
There are those who doubt that a slogan on a hat will do the trick, and have concerns that a 35 percent import tariff and trade war might have the exact opposite effect. They also doubt that more high-end tax cuts and corporate tax cuts are going to trickle down to the people corporate America has put out of work in the pursuit of higher profits, that deregulation ever results in anything becoming cheaper and better, or that tax cuts actually increase revenue and reduce deficits. But by all means, believe in the hat, if it makes you feel better.
No body cares what the loser doubters think, the statement was more why she lost. Funny how she lost more electors than he did, must be her caring disposition, putting us in a basket and rigging the primary.
lol a degate vote for “Faith Spotted Eagle”, it was killed last week by a wind turbine.
@Greg: Greg, some people in the US are smart enough to know that we did not have a popular election for president. The system is representative with an Electoral college system. The object was not to get popular votes, but to get electoral votes. That’s the way Trump played the election. If Hillary was attempting to get more popular votes, without regard to electoral votes, then she succeeded in scoring while losing the objective. I know you know by now that the Cleveland Indians scored the most runs in the World series, but they did not fulfill the objective to win 4 games. So if you get a lot of satisfaction in Hillary not understanding the game, then by all means, smile when you see President Trump take the oath of office because he understood the objective. Just tell all of us that you are proud that Hillary got more popular votes and finished 2nd and that was a better accomplishment than winning 270 electoral votes.
@Greg:
Biggest Loser? ask Hillary what she won.
@Greg:
Oh, so now you’re going to start an organization of ‘Doubters’. Those same doubters were doubting that Trump could get enough electoral votes to win. They are the same group that doubted that Hillary could lose. Let us know all the stocks they doubt will go up under Trump so we will know who to put our money on.
@Greg:
The popular vote is meaningless except to win states. How many states did mrs clinton win?
A ridiculous assertion born of ignorance
By any calculation relevant to presidential political campaigns, President Trump(like the sound of that greg?) is undefeated. mrs clinton in the other hand, was defeated in 2008 by an affirmative action no nothing backbench senator who had never done anything of substance in his life.
Then she had to have a rigged primary system do defeat a true nutcase, THE BERN. Then, she lost the 08 November 2016 to now President Trump not once, but in the recount and now the electoral college, not collage.
It would appear to a reasonable individual, mrs clinton is much more of a loser.
Just in Jill Stein is raising funds to recount the electoral college votes Please send you check , money order or paypal to : Friggingnutcase @ hopelesscauses
Greg, you are still harping about the popular vote. You are such a whiny loser.
There were 50 simultaneous elections in 50 political entities – US States.
Hillary got the most votes in 20 states
trump got the most votes in 30 states.
As each state has 2 electors based on the number of states
Hillary got 40, trump got 60
Then each states get a proportional number of electors based on 435 electors against the population based on the last census.
California has the most …55 … Montana the least 1
However, trump got more of each state’s population based electoral votes to give him the win.
As the USA is actually a Union of 50 nation States rather than a single polo it all body – like the UK, the popular vote only matters within each state.