Wayne Williams said that he intends to administer an oath to electors prior to Monday’s official meeting of the Electoral College. | AP Photo Colorado elections chief: Rogue electors could face perjury charge

Colorado’s election chief is warning that presidential electors who vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton — the state's popular vote winner — could face a perjury charge.

The warning from Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, increases the peril for a group of Colorado’s Democratic presidential electors who have signaled they may reject Clinton as part of a long-shot national strategy to block the election of Donald Trump. They were already facing the prospect of an election law violation that carries the potential for a small fine and a year of jail time.


Williams told POLITICO in a phone interview that he intends to administer an oath to electors prior to Monday’s official meeting of the Electoral College. Any electors who decide to oppose Clinton won’t just be violating the election law that requires them to support Colorado’s popular vote winner – they’ll be violating their oath as well.

“If Elector A writes down Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz or anyone other than Hillary Clinton, they immediately cease to be an elector and they’re replaced,” he said. “The difference here is you have perjured yourself.”

“If you swear the oath and then immediately violate it,” he continued, “I think there’s a basis for a more severe criminal penalty.”

Williams noted that he’s not a prosecutor so he couldn’t say whether electors might be charged with felony perjury – a more serious charge that carries a punishment of up to six years in prison and a $500,000 fine – or misdemeanor perjury, which carries a maximum of 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A handful of Colorado electors have indicated an intention to oppose Clinton, part of a national strategy to block Donald Trump’s election. The Colorado electors – Polly Baca, Micheal Baca (no relation), Robert Nemanich and Jerad Sutton – are members of Hamilton Electors, a group lobbying Republican electors to defect from Trump and unite behind a mainstream Republican alternative.

Polly Baca and Nemanich filed suit to prevent the state from forcing electors to vote for Clinton. But a federal judge denied the effort, which is now under appeal. That leaves Colorado’s electors with a choice: vote for Clinton or reject her in defiance of the court’s decision.

Only Micheal Baca, so far, has insisted he would follow through and oppose Clinton, regardless of the ruling.

“I do intend to vote my conscience on Monday the 19th,” he said. He said Williams’ perjury warning is “continuing the threats made against electors, which I don’t feel is constitutional.”

Williams was buoyed on Tuesday by a state court ruling that clarified his authority to remove any electors who refuse to swear the oath to support Clinton – or agree to the oath but reject Clinton anyway.

He said he’ll have his eyes on electors as they cast their vote on Monday, and as soon as he sees any cast votes against Clinton, it wil trigger their immediate removal and replacement with an alternate. State judge Elizabeth Anne Starrs charged the Colorado Democratic Party with selecting a list of alternates to be ready should any electors be dismissed.

Williams noted that electors have sworn an oath to uphold Colorado’s state law in previous years. But this time, he intends to make it more explicit, given the threats from some electors to reject Clinton.

“I’m not a big fan of gotcha,” he said. “I want people to know what it is they’re swearing to so it’s clear and then they can make that decision.

The Hamilton Electors – which include the four Colorado Democrats, as well as four Washington state Democrats, one California Democrat and a Texas Republican – are hopeful that by casting their own votes for a Republican alternative to Trump, other Republican electors wary of the GOP nominee will buck him, preventing him from winning enough Electoral College support to become president. That outcome would send the final decision to the House of Representatives.

