Facts on Electoral College Protests are taking place tomorrow as the votes will be cast for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or other?
Protests will take place in all 50 states. The public can sign up and obtain more information at December19.US. Thousands have already signed up.
Electoral College Protests
Photo by Fibonacci Blue
The protests have overwhelming grassroots support. Over 4.8 million have signed the petition urging electors to respect the will of the people and vote for the winner of the national popular vote — Hillary Clinton — making it the largest petition in Change.org history. In a recent survey of PCCC’s one million members, 91% to 8% wanted to get involved in the protests for the top purpose of “calling attention to [Trump] losing the popular vote will blunt [Trump’s] ‘mandate’ and momentum.”
Texas Republican elector Christopher Suprun said he will not be voting for Donald Trump, who wrote in the New York Times that Trump is not qualified to be president.
All electors have the Constitutional right to vote their conscience and could choose to support the winner of the popular vote. Harvard Professor and former Scalia clerk Lawrence Lessig and law firm Durie Tangri are heading up an effort providing free legal advice to Electoral College electors who do not wish to vote for Trump, including Christopher Suprun. As Lessig wrote on Medium, the Electors Trust’s goal is “to defend [electors’] constitutional right ‘to exercise,’ as Justice Jackson put it in Ray v. Blair (1952), ‘an independent and nonpartisan judgment as to the [person] best qualified for the Nation’s highest offices.’”
A bipartisan group of over 50 electors called on the CIA to de-classify information on the Russian election hacks that benefitted Trump and to brief the Electoral College before Dec. 19, including Christopher Suprun and Christine Pelosi.
Trump tweeted in 2012 that “the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” His embrace of the Electoral College now exposes his hypocrisy and further underscores how unfit he is for the presidency.
Electoral College Compact: We don’t need a Constitutional Amendment to ensure the next president is chosen by the popular vote. When states equaling 270 or more Electoral College votes pass the National Popular Vote Compact, all of those states agree that their electors will vote for the winner of the popular vote. As of 2016, it has been adopted by ten states and the District of Columbia, whose 165 combined electoral votes represent 61.1% of the 270 votes needed for it to have legal force.
Electoral College Protests – Coalition Organizing the #Dec19 Electoral College Protests:
Democracy Spring: A grassroots organization focused on democracy issues that organized an historic protest in April 2016 against money in politics and voter suppression, which was the largest American civil disobedience action of the 21st century, resulting in over 1300 arrests. Their 99Rise founders also made history by capturing the first video of the Supreme Court ever as they protests Citizens United in the Court chamber.
Americans Take Action: A grassroots network of everyday Americans who believe the American government should represent we the people once again.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee: A grassroots organization with over 1 million members nationwide. Thousands of members are signing up to attend and thousands have donated to fuel the protests. Over 25,000 have signed their petition to support the National Popular Vote Compact and have written hundreds of letters to state legislators urging them to support the compact.
Daniel Brezenoff, founder of the Change.org Petition: The largest petition on Change.org, over 4.8 million have signed on to urge electors to respect the will of the people and to vote for the winner of the national popular vote.
Hamilton Electors: A group within the Electoral College that are electors that have stated they will not cast their ballot for Donald Trump and are urging their colleagues to do the same. The group includes at least 7 Democratic electors and Texas elector Christopher Suprun, who wrote in the New York Times that Trump is not qualified to be president.
Electoral College Protests – Statements from the Coalition Members:
Daniel Brezenoff, Electoral College Petition founder: “The electors should follow the will of the people. Trump lost the popular vote by a historic margin and he should lose on December 19 at the Electoral College.”
Ryan Clayton, Americans Take Action spokesperson: “Russians hacking our democracy to elect Trump should tell you everything you need to know about him. If Putin picked our President, not We the People, then Trump must be rejected by the Electoral College. Trump’s agenda is a clear and present danger to our country and the world. The men and women who died for our freedoms deserve better than this.”
Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder: “We’re supporting these historic protests to urge electors to respect the will of the people. Trump has no ‘mandate’ after he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes and was helped by Russia.”
Kai Newkirk, Democracy Spring leader: “Trump’s razor-thin margins the decisive swing states were almost certainly only the result of massive voter suppression in the first presidential election without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act since the Civil Rights Movement. On December 19, the Electoral College should do the will of the people and reject Trump.”
Tania Maduro, Democracy Spring organizer: “All Presidential electors have a Constitutional right to vote their conscience and the responsibility to follow the will of people by voting for the winner of the national popular vote.”
Electoral College Protests – Other Relevant Comments from Others on Russian Interference:
Congressman David Cicilline said: “To the extent that foreign interference in the United States presidential elections may have influenced the final result, I believe the electors have the right to consider that.”
Longtime Executive Director of the American Security Project, Jim Ludes, tweeted: “Intel community must brief electoral college about Russia before vote. EC exists to protect republic from candidate under foreign influence.”
