Getty Anti-Trump electors form fundraising committee

A coalition of anti-Trump Electoral College members has opened a nonprofit political committee that enables it to raise funds in support of a three-week mad dash to halt Donald Trump's election.

The group, which has dubbed itself Hamilton Electors, registered a 527 political committee with Colorado's secretary of state on Tuesday; 527 is a reference to the section of the federal tax code that provides for tax-exempt political organizations.


The organization lists its incorporation address in Las Vegas, though it is registered to Micheal Baca, a Democratic elector from Colorado and a leader of the group. Baca and a handful of other Democratic electors are building an organization to lobby Republican counterparts to reject Trump.

Though it's unclear how quickly the group could raise money and what it would be used for, there's an appetite among those disgruntled by the impending Trump presidency to resist. A last-minute effort by Green Party candidate Jill Stein to file recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin has generated more than $6 million. And a change.org petition encouraging presidential electors to reject Trump has garnered more than 4.5 million signatures.

Baca and his allies are seeking to replace Trump with a mainstream Republican — such as Mitt Romney or John Kasich. So far, no Republican electors have publicly joined their cause, though the Democratic electors insist they're privately making inroads.

Their time is limited. The 538 members of the Electoral College — including 306 Republicans — are slated to meet Dec. 19 in their respective state capitals to cast the official vote for president.

Earlier Tuesday, Hamilton Electors released a YouTube video featuring one of its leaders — Washington state elector P. Bret Chiafalo — arguing that the country's founders intended the Electoral College to be a fail-safe to prevent election of an unfit president. And, he says, Trump is that unfit person.

The Trump campaign has declined repeated requests for comment on the Electoral College effort.

This article tagged under: Elections

2016 Elections