The electoral college does not vote until December 19th. We have 40 days.
What does this mean?
Right now, the presidential election results are only a PROJECTION of the election outcome. They are PRELIMINARY RESULTS. A candidate still needs to earn 270 electoral votes to win. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which means that more than 50% of the voters wanted her for president. The electoral college shouldn’t guarantee an override of the public’s opinion– and it doesn’t have to.
There are 21 states that do NOT restrict which candidate the electors vote for. Out of these 21, Hillary lost the following:
As you can see, these states are worth 166 electoral votes. As it currently stands, Hillary Clinton is projected to receive 232 votes. Trump is projected to win 306. This means that 37 votes need to be taken away from Trump to bring him down to 269. Hillary Clinton needs 38 votes ADDED to win 270. These electoral voters can also abstain, which means that they can refuse to vote for either candidate. If 37 of the voters within these states abstain then no candidate will have reached the required 270. In this case, the vote would be taken to the House.
Trump won Pennsylvania, a state that typically votes blue, by less than 100,000 votes. While it is highly unlikely to get all 20 electoral voters to cross party lines and vote democrat, it also isn’t impossible to convince a few of them to be “faithless electors.” We only need to convince 38 out of the 166. That is 23%. There are SIXTEEN states we need to focus our attention on.
A move like this would be unprecedented. However, as we all saw on November 8th, odds don’t guarantee reality. Trump had a less than 20% chance of winning, yet given the circumstances, enough people came together and made it happen. We can make this happen.
Ask yourself this: What do we have left to lose? We can stay complacent and accept that this country will be run by a racist, sexist, islamophobic, homophobic, ablest bigot, or we can at least try.
How?
SPREAD THE WORD. Trend #NotMyPresident to let people know that we do not accept being led by a man who does not care about our wellbeing. Email your professors, email the dean of your colleges. The last thing a university wants is negative press. Millenials can take a stand, but that doesn’t mean we have to be the only ones. Church-led events helped bring a lot of disillusioned voters to the polls. Spread the word in any way possible, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or even in person. Stage a peaceful protest. Hand out flyers. Let the people around you know that you don’t accept this man as your leader when he won’t even accept you as a citizen with your designated rights.
These 166 people need to face the consequences of electing this man.
Do this for the people who couldn’t vote. Do this for the people who live in the very real fear of being deported. Do this for the people who will have to face the rise in hate crimes. Do this for the people who have a very real possibility of losing their rights. Do this for the people who will no longer be able to afford necessities.
Here is the contact information found on the electoral college website.
Contact the Office of the Federal Register
For more information on the Electoral College and the election responsibilities of the States and the Archivist of the United States, contact the Office of the Federal Register:
Telephone: 202-741-6030
E-mail:
Office hours
The Office of the Federal Register is open Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays, from 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
General Inquiries: 202-741-6000
E-mail:
Mailing Address
Office of the Federal Register (NF)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Office Location
We are located three blocks north of the Union Station Metro stop
800 North Capitol Street, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001
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When you ask them for specific members, be polite, be quick to the point, and do not threaten or break down and beg. I find that calling people earlier in the day helps, as they feel more obliging or sympathetic, but try not to call with less then 30 minutes before they close. And please, for the love of god, don’t slam them about the electoral college undermining democracy or needing to be abolished. Even if I agree, right now they are the last people who could change this, lets not piss them off.
Ask for the info of as many electorates as you can and write to them, yes with actual paper-and-stamp letters. Type them out if you don’t trust your handwriting. Call them if you want, but be sure to write. If you are to write only one letter in your life, then let this be it. Every little bit helps, but if you can, focus on the swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida. But try every state that wasn’t won by Hilary.
Tell them the proven, stated facts, no conspiracy theory’s about Russia or China, have them listed out and read them off if you are calling. Tell them the horrifying consequences of a Trump presidency, how it affects you or people around you. Remind them of his hundreds of pending law suits, and the cases of fraud with Trump U and the multiple sexual assaults. Again, be polite, do not threaten, and if they are elected officials, then tell them that their job depends on the majority of the people’s votes, and the majority did not vote for Trump. This man is not fit for the office, remind them.
Ask your parents and grandparents for help with formatting and to do this with you if they didn’t want him in office. Get as many others to do this as possible, with enough letters, calls and emails, we could sway enough to change their vote towards sanity. Lawyers, politicians, major actors or artists, the more the better.
And even if it doesn’t make them change or change enough it sows the seeds to let more officials and lawmakers know that they have the public’s support in opposing him, which is a critical must if we want to impeach him.