Alexander Hamilton portrait by John Trumbull 1806

In the

2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

, ten members of the Electoral College voted or attempted to vote for a candidate different from the ones to whom they were pledged. Three of these votes were invalidated under the

faithless elector In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...

laws of their respective states, and the elector either subsequently voted for the pledged candidate or was replaced by someone who did. Although there had been a combined total of 155 instances of individual electors voting faithlessly prior to 2016 in over two centuries of previous US presidential elections, 2016 was the first election in over a hundred years in which multiple electors worked to alter the result of the election. As a result of the seven successfully cast faithless votes, the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

nominee,

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, lost five of her pledged electors while the Republican Party nominee and then president-elect,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

, lost two. Three of the faithless electors voted for Colin Powell while

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...

, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and

Faith Spotted Eagle Faith Spotted Eagle ( Dakota: or "Standing Stone"; born 1948) is an American activist and politician. She is a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation who attempted to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. ...

each received one vote. The defections fell well short of the number needed to change the result of the election; only two of the seven defected from the winner, whereas 37 were needed to defect in order to force a contingent election in Congress (a tally of less than 270). The faithless electors who opposed Donald Trump were part of a movement dubbed the "Hamilton Electors" co-founded by Micheal Baca of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

and Bret Chiafalo of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The movement attempted to find 37 Republican electors willing to vote for a different Republican in an effort to deny Donald Trump a majority in the Electoral College and force a

contingent election In the United States, a contingent election is used to elect the president or vice president if no candidate receives a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed. A presidential contingent election is decided by a special vote of th ...

in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. The electors advocated for voting their conscience to prevent the election of someone they viewed as unfit for the presidency as prescribed by Alexander Hamilton in No. 68 of ''

The Federalist Papers ''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The c ...

''. Despite their stated intentions to defeat Donald Trump, these electors cast their votes for persons other than the candidate to whom they were pledged, Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton. By the time they switched their votes away from Trump's opponent, it was numerically impossible to achieve their stated goal as all but 30 of the Trump-pledged electoral votes had already been cast (in different states in the same or later time zones), with 37 votes needed to switch to deny Trump an outright victory in the Electoral College. Electors were subjected to public pressure, including threats of death if they remained faithful to voting for Trump. The Washington elector who voted for Faith Spotted Eagle did so in protest of Hillary Clinton's support for the Dakota Access Pipeline. The seven validated faithless votes for president were the most to defect from presidential candidates who were still alive in electoral college history, surpassing the six electors who defected from

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

in the 1808 election. This number of defections has been exceeded only once: in

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

, a record 63 of 66 electors who were originally pledged to losing candidate Horace Greeley cast their votes for someone else (Greeley had died between election day and the meeting of the Electoral College). The six faithless vice-presidential votes in 2016 are short of the record for that office, without considering whether the vice-presidential candidates were still living, as multiple previous elections have had more than six faithless vice-presidential votes; in

1836 Events January–March * January 1 – Queen Maria II of Portugal marries Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. * January 5 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas. * January 12 ** , with Charles Darwin on board, re ...

, faithless electors moved the vice-presidential decision to the US Senate, though this did not affect the outcome.

Background

In the unique system of presidential elections of the United States, the president is not determined directly by the popular vote of the national electorate, but indirectly through the mechanism of the Electoral College determined by cumulative wins of the popular votes of state electorates. In this system of representative democracy, a presidential candidate is deemed to have won a presidential race if that candidate wins a simple majority of the electoral college vote. Electors are selected on a state-by-state basis: in 48 states all electors are pledged to the winner of the statewide popular vote; in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

the winner of each congressional district receives one elector and the statewide winner receives two. The electors, once selected, are free under

federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join in a federation, delegating their individual sovereignty and many po ...

to vote for a candidate other than the one for whom they were pledged. However, at the time of the election, thirty-one states and the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

had laws requiring their electors to vote for their pledged candidate, and courts had issued conflicting opinions regarding the constitutionality of those laws. The

supremacy clause The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States ( Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the "supreme Law of the Land", and thu ...

established by the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

provides that state courts are bound by federal law and the Constitution in the event that state law were to contradict them. Only four times in American history (

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is ...

1888 In Germany, 1888 is known as the Year of the Three Emperors. Currently, it is the year that, when written in Roman numerals, has the most digits (13). The next year that also has 13 digits is the year 2388. The record will be surpassed as late ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

) has a presidential candidate lost the popular vote but achieved the Electoral College majority, thereby assuming the presidency; in the last three such cases, no candidate polled an absolute majority of the popular vote. In the event that no one receives a majority of the Electoral College vote, the selection of the president is made by the

under certain constitutional guidelines. In 1824 the candidate with the highest popular vote (

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

) also had the most electoral votes but, crucially, did not have a majority in the Electoral College. Despite

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...

having lost the popular vote and having received fewer electoral votes than Andrew Jackson, the

chose Adams to become President.

Number of intended faithless electors

In the 2016 election cycle, the threshold of 270 electoral votes to win the presidency outright could have been thwarted by garnering a minimum of at least 12 percent of all Republican electors to become faithless, that is, 37 of 306 Republican electors. However, critics noted at the time that garnering this many electors was extremely unlikely, as electors vote more than 99 percent of the time as pledged. On November 16, 2016, journalist

Bill Lichtenstein Bill Lichtenstein (born October 3, 1956) is an American print and broadcast journalist and documentary producer, president of the media production company, Lichtenstein Creative Media, Incorporated. Lichtenstein began working in 1970 at age 1 ...

published an article entitled, "The Way Out of Trumpland: Hail Mary Pass to Save the Nation" in the ''Huffington Post'', detailing the plans by presidential elector Micheal Baca to seek to derail Trump's ascent to the presidency by convincing Democratic and Republican presidential electors to vote for a more moderate candidate on December 19, 2016, when the Electoral College voted. Lichtenstein's article soon went viral, and on December 5, 2016, several members of the electoral college, seven from the

and one from the Republican Party, publicly stated their intention to vote for a candidate other than the pledged nominee at the Electoral College vote on December 19, 2016.

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Republican elector Christopher Suprun publicly pledged to not cast his vote for

as allowed by Texas state law. Suprun indicated that he had also been in confidential contact with several Republican electors who planned to vote faithlessly, stating that they would be "discussing names specifically and see who meets the itness for presidenttest that we could all get behind." By December 5, 2016, two Republican electoral college members who publicly stated their intention to not vote for Trump had resigned. Texas Republican elector Art Sisneros willingly resigned in November rather than vote for Trump. Georgia Republican elector Baoky Vu resigned in August in the face of reaction to his public statement that he would not vote for Trump. Both Sisneros and Vu served in states that lacked any laws preventing electors from voting their conscience. Although it is difficult to ascertain how many more electors, especially Republican electors, considered becoming faithless and voting for a Republican other than Trump, it was reported that at least an additional 20 Republican electors had already accepted free-of-charge anonymous legal counsel and support provided for Republican faithless electors to assist them in voting against Trump. The

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...

mounted an expansive whip operation to ensure that all those electors selected to vote for the Republican nominee indeed did so. On December 14, multiple Republican members of the electoral college stated under condition of anonymity that they were being coerced with "threats of political reprisal," adding "that the Donald Trump campaign is putting pressure on Republican electors to vote for him based on ... future political outcomes based on whether they vote for Donald Trump or not."

Public outreach to electors

On December 14, the Unite For America campaign released a video published on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and other media addressed directly to Republican electors urging that each of them individually, plus 36 of their colleagues (at least 37 Republican electors in total), vote for a Republican other than Donald Trump for President. The video featured numerous public figures, including

Debra Messing Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing received short-lived roles on television series such as '' Ned and Stacey'' on Fox (1995–1997) and ...

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

, and Bob Odenkirk, urging Republican electors to prevent a Trump presidency, expressing several times the message: "I'm not asking you to vote for Hillary Clinton". In electing an alternative Republican, the featured speakers ask the elector to become an "American hero" by using the elector's constitutional "authority" to give "service and patriotism to the American people" through a vote of "conscience." Daniel Brezenoff's anti-Trump

Change.org Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...

petition became the largest in that organization's history with nearly five million signatures, and on December 14, full-page ads funded by Brezenoff's related

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the be ...

campaign ran in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'', the '' Austin American-Statesman'', '' The Salt Lake Tribune'', and the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

''. Full-page ads ran the next day, December 15, in ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'' and the ''

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...

''. On December 11, Democratic

US Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Jim Himes James Andrew Himes (born July 5, 1966) is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the New Democrat Coalition in the 115th Congress (2017–2019). H ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

wrote on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that Trump is "completely unhinged" and "the Electoral College must do what it was designed for." Himes said he made the plea to the Electoral College because Trump refused to say that the Russians hacked Democrats during the election.

Legal counsel and advocacy

On December 6, 2016, the Hamilton Electors' website was established to advocate the election of an alternative Republican as the next President of the United States.

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...

, a prominent

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

law professor (and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination himself), announced that he was "teaming with a California-based law firm to offer legal support for any members of the Electoral College seeking to oppose President-elect Donald Trump." Lessig said the counsel and support (namely

Laurence Tribe Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School. A constitutional law sc ...

, who has argued before the Supreme Court 36 times) would be provided anonymously. Litigation is a component of Lessig's

Equal Citizens Equal Citizens is an American non-profit, non-partisan group that is "dedicated to reforms that will achieve citizen equality". It was founded in late 2016 by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig to continue the effort to bring about the set of ...

movement. Lessig and Boston attorney R. J. Lyman created a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

called Electors Trust to provide potential faithless electors with ''pro bono'' legal assistance.

Litigation prior to the vote

In states with laws against faithlessness, depending on the particular state voting faithlessly despite the laws may incur anything from no prescribed punishment, to simple removal and replacement of the intended faithless elector, to fines and the potential imprisonment of the elector. Democratic electors filed lawsuits in

, and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, but federal judges declined to issue injunctions blocking these laws, and there was insufficient time to appeal to the Supreme Court before the electoral college vote. However, in '' Baca v. Hickenlooper'' a three-judge panel of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Distr ...

declared in a footnote that any attempt to remove electors "after voting has begun" would be "unlikely in light of the text of the Twelfth Amendment." While at the time of the election the constitutionality of faithless electors had not yet been addressed by the Supreme Court, in '' Ray v. Blair'', the court had ruled in favor of state laws requiring electors to pledge to vote for the winning candidate in order to be certified as electors, as well as removing electors who refuse to pledge. Nevertheless, the court had also written: In his dissent, Justice Robert H. Jackson, joined by Justice

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often ci ...

, wrote:

Recorded faithless electors

Validated

Invalidated

Recipients of votes

;President Colin Powell official Secretary of State photo.jpg, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, 3 votes Bernie Sanders.jpg, Senator Bernie Sanders, 1 vote (plus 2 invalidated) Governor John Kasich.jpg, Governor

, 1 vote (plus 1 invalidated) Ron Paul, official Congressional photo portrait, 2007.jpg, Former Representative Ron Paul, 1 vote ;Vice President Elizabeth Warren by Gage Skidmore.jpg,

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

, 2 votes Carly Fiorina by Gage Skidmore 3.jpg,

Carly Fiorina Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (''née'' Sneed; born September 6, 1954) is an American businesswoman and politician, known primarily for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). As chief executive officer of HP from 1999 to 2005, Fiorina was ...

, 1 vote Maria Cantwell, official portrait, 110th Congress.jpg, Senator

Maria Cantwell Maria Ellen Cantwell (; born October 13, 1958) is an American politician and former businesswoman serving as the junior United States senator from Washington since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the Washingto ...

, 1 vote Susan Collins official Senate photo.jpg, Senator

Susan Collins Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of Con ...

, 1 vote Winona duke dream reborn.png,

Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke (born August 18, 1959) is an American economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for Vice ...

, 1 vote File:Tulsi Gabbard, official portrait, 113th Congress (cropped 3).jpg, Representative

Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard (; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the fi ...

(1 invalidated vote)

Legal challenges

The four faithless electors from Washington were each fined $1,000 for breaking their pledge. Three of the electors appealed the fines, which were upheld by the

Washington Supreme Court The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington. The court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Members of the court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retir ...

in May 2019 by an 8–1 vote. On October 7, 2019, the electors unsuccessfully appealed their case, '' Chiafalo v. Washington'', to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Colorado, three of the electors filed suit in the

United States District Court for the District of Colorado The United States District Court for the District of Colorado (in case citations, D. Colo. or D. Col.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are a ...

. The case, ''Baca v. Colorado Department of State'', was dismissed by Judge Wiley Young Daniel on April 10, 2018. The electors filed an appeal with the 10th Circuit and oral arguments were held on January 24, 2019. On August 20, 2019, a three-judge panel ruled 2–1 in favor of the electors. On October 16, 2019, Colorado appealed the 10th Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in both the Washington and Colorado cases in January 2020; while initially consolidated, Justice Sotomayor's recusal in the Colorado case due to a prior relationship with one of the respondents kept the cases separate. Oral arguments in both cases had been scheduled for April, but were subsequently postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. It was then announced that oral arguments would be held via phone, which occurred on May 13, 2020. On July 6, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states may require an elector to vote for the candidate to whom they had pledged, and a fine imposed for an elector for breaching a pledge is not unlawful.

Notes

References

{{Reflist , 30em , refs = {{cite web , last = Gradison , first = Robin , date = December 9, 2016 , title = 'Rogue' GOP Elector Says Others Will Join in Opposing Trump , url = https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rogue-gop-elector-join-opposing-trump/story?id=44070185 , website =

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

{{cite web , last = Galloway , first = Jim , date = August 3, 2016 , title = An Electoral College revolt against Donald Trump is quickly quashed in Georgia , url = http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/08/03/an-electoral-college-revolt-against-donald-trump-is-quickly-quashed-in-georgia , website = Atlanta Journal-Constitution {{cite web , last = Pilkington , first = Ed , date = November 30, 2016 , title = Teen becomes seventh 'faithless elector' to protest Trump as president-elect , url = https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/faithless-electors-electoral-college-donald-trump , website =

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

{{cite web , last = Pilkington , first = Ed , date = December 5, 2016 , title = First Republican 'faithless elector' announces intent to vote against Trump , url = https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/faithless-electors-republican-electoral-college-trump , website =

{{cite news , last = Broomfield , first = Matt , date = December 14, 2016 , title = Donald Trump is "threatening" rebel Republican politicians , url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-rebel-republican-electoral-college-voters-political-reprisal-us-election-a7473451.html , website =

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

{{cite web , last = Halper , first = Daniel , date = December 12, 2016 , title = Congressman begs Electoral College voters to block Trump , url = https://nypost.com/2016/12/12/congressman-begs-electoral-college-voters-to-block-trump , website =

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

{{cite news , last = Suprun , first = Christopher , date = December 5, 2016 , title = Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump , url = https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html {{cite web , last = Cheney , first = Kyle , date = December 5, 2016 , title = Lessig, lawyers to offer support to anti-Trump electors , url = https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/larry-lessig-electors-trump-232231 , website =

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

{{cite web , first = Kyle , last = Cheney , date = December 13, 2016 , title = RNC keeps close tabs on Electoral College vote: GOP effort makes sure Republican electors don't go wobbly on Trump , url = https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/rnc-trump-electoral-college-232537 , website =

{{cite web , last = Cheney , first = Kyle , title = Lessig: 20 Trump electors could flip , url = https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-electors-lessig-232598 , website =

{{cite web , last = Rozsa , first = Matthew , title = Source: Donald Trump's campaign is threatening "political reprisal" for defecting Republican electors , url = http://www.salon.com/2016/12/13/report-donald-trumps-campaign-is-threatening-political-reprisal-for-defecting-republican-electors , website = Salon, date = December 14, 2016 {{cite web , last = O'Donnell , first = Lilly , date = November 21, 2016 , title = Meet the 'Hamilton Electors' Campaigning for an Electoral College Revolt , url = https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/meet-the-hamilton-electors-hoping-for-an-electoral-college-revolt/508433 , website =

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

{{cite web , title = 2004 Electors for President and Vice President of the United States , url = http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G04/EC-Appointed.phtml , year = 2004 , website = TheGreenPapers.com {{cite web , last = Zimmerman , first = Neetzan , date = November 28, 2016 , title = Republican elector chooses to resign rather than vote for Trump , url = http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/307683-republican-elector-chooses-to-resign-rather-than-vote-for-trump , website = The Hill {{cite web , date = December 7, 2016 , host = Steve Inskeep, host , title = Texas Elector Resigns, Saying He Can't Vote For Trump In Electoral College , url = https://www.npr.org/2016/12/07/504651708/texas-elector-resigns-saying-he-cant-vote-for-trump-in-electoral-college , work = NPR , access-date = December 29, 2016 {{cite web , last = Himes , first = James , date = December 11, 2016 , title = Jim Himes Status/808116879558660098 , url = https://twitter.com/jahimes/status/808116879558660098 , website =

, quote = We're 5 wks from Inauguration & the President Elect is completely unhinged. The electoral college must do what it was designed for. {{cite web , last = Richardson , first = Valerie , date = December 14, 2016 , title = Harvard prof advising electors says 20+ Republicans may vote against Trump , url = http://washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/14/professor-20-gop-electors-may-vote-against-trump , website =

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...

{{cite book , last1=Sabato , first1= Larry J. , last2=Ernst , first2= Howard R. , date = May 14, 2014 , title = Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections , publisher = Infobase Publishing , isbn = 978-1-4381-0994-7 , page = 133 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d-379E2mFmYC&pg=PA133 , access-date = November 15, 2016 , quote = in 1836...the Virginia electors abstained rather than vote for Democratic vice presidential nominee Richard Johnson

External links

Hamilton Electors websiteUnite For America website
Controversies of the 2016 United States presidential election December 2016 events in the United States

Reactions to the election of Donald Trump Never Trump movement