At least six Democratic electors have signed an agreement to try to block Donald Trump from securing the presidency with 270 Electoral College votes.
While
it would be unlikely to convince 37 Republican electors to change their
votes - the number needed to erase Trump's lead among the 538 total
electors - an unusually large number of 'faithless electors' who refuse
to vote for Trump could undermine the institution itself.
In
the U.S., presidents are elected by the Electoral College - not by
popular vote in which Hillary Clinton is 1.7million votes ahead of
Trump. In most states, electors must cast a vote for the winner of their
state's popular vote.
But
some states like Arizona, Idaho, Michigan and Georgia don't have a rule
against electors going rogue, and phone calls from across the country
have been pouring in to try to sway them against voting for Trump.
There have been 157 faithless electors
over 228 years, 71 of whom changed their votes because a candidate died,
according to Fairvote.org.
Even if the
electors manage to block Trump from receiving 270 of the 538 votes, the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives would likely vote Trump
into the White House anyway.
Michael
Baca is one member of the Electoral College from Colorado trying to
convince others to band together to avoid a Trump presidency when
electors cast their votes on December 19.
Baca said: 'I'm a former U.S. Marine and the core values are honor, courage, commitment. I don't believe Donald Trump has that.'
While Baca
is a registered Democrat and supported Bernie Sanders, he is considering
rallying behind Mitt Romney or John Kasich if that means garnering more
support from other electors.
Even
if he is unsuccessful in his efforts, Baca said: 'I do think that a
byproduct would be a serious look into Electoral College reform.'
Washington state elector, P. Bret Chiafalo, has also joined Baca in the attempt to block a Trump presidency.
Another
elector who did not want to be identified said: 'If it gets into the
House, the controversy and the uncertainty that would immediately blow
up into a political firestorm in the U.S. would cause enough people — my
hope is — to look at the whole concept of the Electoral College.'
It
remains unclear just how many faithless electors there will be, but
political science professor George Edwards III told Politico: 'If you
could get eight or 10 Trump electors to vote for someone else...then
that would probably get people's attention.'
While a faithless elector's vote is void in Michigan, Mike Banerian disagreed with the idea and told the Detroit News: 'Even if I could, I wouldn't be remotely interested in changing my vote.

'The people of Michigan spoke, and it's our job to deliver that message.'
Hillary
Clinton's loss is the second time in five elections a Democrat has won
the popular vote without securing a majority in the Electoral College.
Votes
are still being tallied, but she stands at more than 1.7million votes
ahead of president-elect Donald Trump, even though she only received 232
electoral votes to Trump's 290.
Michigan's 16 electoral votes have still not been officially called, although they are expected to go to Trump.
In
Arizona, electors have been hit with a barrage of emails and phone
calls from unhappy citizens - most of them from out of state.
'It
is total harassment,' Robert Graham, an elector and chairman of the
state Republican Party, told the Arizona Republic. 'It started about a
week ago. Now? 'Bam!' It's hardcore.'

Arizona
elector Saron Geise estimates that she has received as many as 8,000
calls and says she has stopped picking up altogether.
It's a similar story just in Idaho, Michigan and Georgia.
California senator Barbara Boxer has already introduced a bill in an attempt to abolish the 'outdated, undemocratic' structure.
The founding fathers created the Electoral College thinking the small group would act as a buffer against the people.
Alexander
Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that the small group would
ensure 'the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man
who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite
qualifications'.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
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