Tuesday's election has produced a mixed result. Donald Trump won the voting in enough states to put him over the minimum 270 electoral vote threshold; with Michigan, Arizona, and New Hampshire still undecided, Trump is at 279 to 228 for Clinton. Hillary Clinton appears to have won the popular vote; at this hour she's up about 230,000 votes over Trump.

Clinton has conceded, and the Trump transition is moving ahead.

But the election isn't over, under our Constitution, until the designated electors of the Electoral College meet on December 19 at their state capitals to cast their votes and then, on January 6, Congress meets to affirm that result.

It would be an extraordinary measure for the electoral college to select anyone other than Donald Trump to be our next president.

This is an extraordinary situation.

As Americans we have the right and indeed the duty to prevent an unfit person from taking the oath of office as our president.



We are not powerless to use our constitutional system to avoid disaster... We have no obligation to sit back and do nothing.



Some have suggested that Clinton forces could recruit some Trump foes among the GOP electors to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, joining forces with the electors from states that Clinton won to give her an electoral college majority.

I think that goes too far. The Trump-Pence GOP ticket won the electoral map vote. The states, as weighted by their electoral votes, have said they want a change in Washington.

Moreover, if the electoral college took this extraordinary step, the Congress, under our laws, could still upset it. The GOP will control both houses of Congress. Which strengthens the case for pressing to replace Trump with a Republican, rather than Clinton.

Clinton electors and Republican electors concerned about Trump's fitness could join and select a different Republican -- perhaps Ohio governor John Kasich, New Mexico governor Susana Martinez, or Speaker of the House Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

I supported Hillary Clinton. The GOP leaders I mentioned would likely advance policy outcomes I would strongly oppose. But I am looking for some solution that would protect our country from an unfit leader.

Folks, I know this is unlikely to happen. There's a good argument that to avoid chaos, we should generally pick the winner, and move ahead, by the morning after the presidential election. All I am suggesting is that we are not powerless to use our constitutional system to avoid disaster.

Nearly 59 million Americans voted for Donald Trump, and many would be outraged and disappointed if he is not president. But at least at this writing, even more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. We have no obligation to sit back and do nothing.

In 1788, in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton warned of the risks of inaugurating a president with"[t]alents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity," and he argued for the proposed electoral college system in these terms: "The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." Such a man stands on the verge of being inaugurated, but the process established by our Founders has not been completed.