The Electoral College’s 538 members are slated to gather in their respective state capitals Dec. 19. | Getty 2 presidential electors encourage colleagues to sideline Trump 'This is a longshot. It’s a Hail Mary,' one Washington State elector says.

Two Democratic members of the Electoral College have launched a radical last-ditch attempt to stop Donald Trump from winning the presidency.

P. Bret Chiafalo, a Washington State elector who has already declared his opposition to Hillary Clinton, and Micheal Baca of Colorado have launched what they’ve dubbed “Moral Electors,” an attempt to persuade 37 of their Republican colleagues to bail on Trump — just enough to block Trump’s election and leave the final decision to the House of Representatives. They have the support of a third elector, Washington State’s Robert Satiacum.


“This is a longshot. It’s a Hail Mary,” Chiafalo said in a phone interview. “However, I do see situations where — when we’ve already had two or three [Republican] electors state publicly they didn’t want to vote for Trump. How many of them have real issues with Donald Trump in private?”

Chiafalo, a self-described “regular nerdy dude who works for Microsoft” and Baca, a grad student and Marine Corps veteran, insist they’re not seeking the election of Clinton — or even a Democrat. Both, in fact, had already been considering voting against her when the Electoral College meets in five weeks. Rather, they intend to encourage Republican electors to write in Mitt Romney or John Kasich. If enough agree, the election would be sent to the House of Representatives, which would choose from among the top three vote-getters.

Both men acknowledge that their effort is unlikely to succeed. Electors throughout American history have rarely broken ranks. But the fact that members of the college — part of an arcane but powerful constitutional process — are working to undermine Trump could lead to a larger share of dissident electors than the country has seen in decades and put renewed focus on calls to abolish the controversial body.

The Electoral College’s 538 members are slated to gather in their respective state capitals on Dec. 19 to cast the formal vote for president. Trump won the popular vote in states making up 290 electoral votes — and he’s leading narrowly in Michigan, which carries another 16 electoral votes. If all of them vote for Trump, he’ll win 306 electoral votes, easily exceeding the 270-vote majority he needs to become president. That’s why Chiafalo and Baca are seeking to flip 37 Republican colleagues.

“Faithless electors,” those who buck the will of their states’ voters, have been rare in American history, and they’ve never swung the outcome of an election. The last one came in 2004, when a Minnesota elector slated to support John Kerry cast his vote for Kerry’s running mate, John Edwards. And the last time there was more than one faithless elector voting for president came in 1872, when Democratic candidate Horace Greeley died after Election Day.

The rarity of faithless electors is partly because electors are reluctant to reject the will of the voters, and it’s also because 29 states have laws mandating that electors support the winner of the state popular vote. These laws, though, have never been enforced or challenged. And some constitutional lawyers believe they’re invalid. In addition, some of these laws only impose modest fines but provide no recourse to change the outcome.

Chiafalo and Baca say they’re hopeful that Trump’s uniquely polarizing persona could convince enough Republican electors to sideline him. Already electors have faced a torrent of pressure from anti-Trump forces to buck his election. A Change.org petition urging electors to support Clinton – the winner of the national popular vote — has garnered more than 4 million signatures. That effort has won vocal support from celebrities like Lady Gaga — though no prominent Democrats have taken up the call. Baca and Chiafalo said their effort is likelier to make inroads because it’s coming from within the Electoral College, and it’s focused on gentle persuasion rather than encouraging thousands of voters to rein down emails and phone calls.

Several Republican electors have expressed reservations about Trump, though most committed to voting for him. Arizona elector Jane Lynch, for example, told POLITICO in August she would only reluctantly cast her electoral vote for Trump. Reached after the election, Lynch said she still intended to honor that commitment. And Chris Suprun, who told POLITICO in August he was considering rejecting Trump has since reversed course and committed to supporting him. Georgia elector Baoky Vu resigned after he came out against Trump.

The only Republican elector on record considering a break from Trump is in Texas. Art Sisneros, a libertarian activist, told POLITICO in August that he might reject Trump when he casts his formal vote. Contacted Monday, Sisneros affirmed he’s still “undecided” about his vote. He said he hasn’t been pressured by state party leaders but has heard from fellow Republican electors pushing him to vote for Trump. And a Virginia elector, Erich Reimer, signaled he'd consider casting his electoral vote against Trump if GOP leaders made a concerted decision to use electors to sideline him — but Clinton won the state.

Baca, the Colorado elector, said he’s hopeful that even if the effort fails, it could cause enough consternation about the Electoral College to reignite debate about abolishing it. Democrats clamored for it after the 2000 election in which Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush. That outcome mirrored the Clinton-Trump results as well.

He acknowledged that succeeding, even on that score, is a pipe dream — but he said he’s still hopeful.

“It was a pipe dream that the Cubs were going to win the World Series,” he said. “Pipe dreams come true.”

