those faithless electors
It has to be a record. 7 faithless electoral votes. So, here we are. The official results of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump 304
Clinton 227
Colin Powell 3
Faith Spotted Eagle 1
John Kasich 1
Bernie Sanders 1
Ron Paul 1.
1872’s election does not count, as the Democratic candidate — Horace Greeley — died shortly after the election, so this is a record. If it proves a portents of a future where “Hamiltonian electors” ignore the state results — that is the stuff of speculative fiction on the end (or evolution) of our Republican Democracy.
I did note the story of a faithless elector from Washington during the midst of the campaign who said they would not vote for Hillary under any circumstances — were dead set on Bernie. I have no way of knowing if the election came down to a one vote Clinton lead, with the new tie thrown to the Republican state delegated dominated House, if this would be the case. But given the big ground-swell in Washington for…
Colin Powell / Maria Cantwell
Colin Powell / Susan Collins
Colin Powell / Elizabeth Warren
Faith Spotted Eagle / Winona LaDuke
Presumably the Bernie supporter went for Faith Spotted Eagle — as it’s hard to imagine they’d go to the “hard headed realist” route — such as it is– and… well.
The votes were part of the Hamilton Electors movement. In this movement, some Democrats pledged to go faithless and give their electoral vote to a compromise candidate. They had hoped this would convince Republican electors to do the same, and possibly prevent President-Elect Donald Trump from winning the Electoral College. They thought if they could keep Trump from getting the 270 votes that he needed to win the Electoral College, then the vote would be given to the House of Representatives and the House might choose the alternative Republican instead.
We came this close… this close… this close… to a Colin Powell presidency.
And by this close, imagine the distance of the Grand Canyon. Was it worth a shot? I don’t know. What would have happened if there was a ground-swell of support for Ron Paul? And what does one Texas elector have against Mark Pence that they have for Carly Fiorina?