Electors

[Haruo]

So how many non-compliant electors were there, and what were their choices?

[KeithE]

Strange name- faithless. I’ll use your name "non-compliant" instead.

Five "non-compliant electors" from Clinton, 2 from Trump. Most in over 100 years.

Your state, Haruo, had the most non-compliant electors. Three voted for Colin Powell, and one for . All were pledged to Clinton. For VP these four voted for Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Senator Susan Collins (ME), Senator Maria Cantrell (WA), and (VP candidate in 1996, 2000 under Ralph Nader).

The other votes went to John Kasich (Trump pledged Ohioan), Ron Paul (Trump pledged Texan) and Bernie Sanders (Clinton pledged Hawaiian).

[Tim Bonney]

It was pretty much what I figured. I can't imagine the electoral college turning over an election. There isn't any history of it happening and they'd take a huge amount of heat for doing so.

[Sandy]

In states that have state laws preventing defections, there were election officials present to nullify the votes and replace the "faithless" elector. There should be more outrage over that, since the constitution precludes any state law related to its own domain, and the electors choosing a president certainly is. There's no constitutional requirement that electors recognize the votes of their states, since the votes are not cast for presidential candidates, but for the electors themselves. But I'm sure the same people who shriek like stuck pigs when any state attempts to pass a reasonable gun law are the same ones who couldn't care less if the way their ballots are handled is unconstitutional.

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Where does one draw the line? Suppose instead of just being accused of being the passive recipient of underhanded Russian assistance in the election, Trump had made a sweeping declaration of his intent, by Executive Order if necessary, to take over Canada, give Quebec back to France after building a wall around it, and then seek the confederation of the Enlarged United States with the United Russian Federation. At what point would it cease to be "faithless" to vote for someone, almost anyone, else?

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

[Dave Roberts]

For anyone that follows Presidential elections, the idea of the electoral college ever stopping Trump was a made-up news story to keep people watching cable news channels. There was no real story here from the start.

[Tim Bonney]

[Jim]

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Jim]

[Tim Bonney]

[Jon Estes]

I heard someone say... and it made sense to me... in football it is not the one who gains the most yards who wins the game but the one who scores the most points, as points are given according to the rules set.

[David Flick]