Vinz Koller joins a group that calls itself “Hamilton Electors” and is working to convince at least 37 Republican electors to reject Donald Trump and unite behind an alternative Republican candidate. | AP Photo California elector files suit, joins anti-Trump Electoral College push

A Democratic presidential elector from California has filed suit in support of an effort to block Donald Trump’s path to the presidency, the second such lawsuit filed in recent days.

Vinz Koller, chairman of the Monterey County Democratic Party, has become the 10th presidential elector – joining eight other Democrats and one Republican – to lend support to the anti-Trump effort. His lawsuit, filed Friday, seeks to overturn a California statute that requires him and the state’s 54 other members of the Electoral College to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton when they vote on Dec. 19. A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this week in Colorado by two Democratic electors, Robert Nemanich and Polly Baca.


Their hope is that legal victories help undermine the 29 state laws across the country that force electors to support the winner of their statewide popular vote. Many of those laws apply in states where Republican electors have expressed wariness of Trump but have noted that they’re legally required to vote for him. Koller joins a group that calls itself “Hamilton Electors” and is working to convince at least 37 Republican electors to reject Trump and unite behind an alternative Republican candidate.

This lawsuit represents the most aggressive move in support of that effort yet, since a victory would effectively free more than one in 10 members of the Electoral College to vote for any candidate. Koller, like Baca and Nemanich, argues that the Founders intended presidential electors to have free choice in casting their votes.

“Though Hillary Clinton and Timothy Kaine won the majority vote in California and are qualified for office, Plaintiff cannot be constitutionally compelled to vote for them,” Koller’s attorney Melody Kramer wrote in a filing in the U.S. District Court of North California. “Plaintiff must be allowed to exercise his judgment and free will to vote for whomever he believes to be the most qualified and fit for the offices of President and Vice President within the circumstances and with the knowledge known on December 19, 2016.”

The 538 members of the Electoral College will meet on Dec. 19 in their respective state capitals to cast the official vote for president. Trump won the popular vote in states that include 306 electoral votes, while Clinton won in states that include 232 electoral votes. If all of the electors in Trump’s states support him, he’ll easily clear the 270-vote threshold to become president. That’s why the anti-Trump electors are pursuing 37 recalcitrant Republicans. So far, only one, Texas’ Chris Suprun, has publicly broken from Trump.

Even if no other electors join the effort, the anti-Trump push is already reaching historic levels. The most electors to ever break from a presidential candidate was six in 1808, when a small band of Democratic-Republican electors voted against James Madison.