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After Donald Trump’s shock victory in the US election, attention has quickly turned to how his presidency can be stopped.

The Republican could be impeached – however that would require approval from the House of Representatives then a jury trial in front of 100 senators.

But there’s an alternative, taking advantage of the complicated Electoral College system which allowed Mr Trump to win despite losing the popular vote.

When voters cast their ballots in the US, they’re not actually directly choosing a winner – but instead an ‘elector’ who will ultimately represent the views of the electorate when the College meets in mid-December.

They are expected to vote the way there states voted – however there is very little to stop the electors from changing their ballots if they disagree.

(Image: Sky News)

Those who do so are known as ‘faithless electors’ and there have been hundreds in the past.

While it has never actually changed the overall result of the election, millions have signed a petition calling for electors to ditch Trump and choose Clinton.

Some have already indicated that they will ignore the vote in their states and opt for another candidate.

However, if enough members do the same it will be declared that there is no winner of the Electoral College.

That would pass the election to the House of Representatives and eventually the Senate to pick another candidate.

Unfortunately, that would likely be vice president elect Mike Pence – who is considered much more hardline than Mr Trump on a number of issues. So it’s not all good news.

(Image: AFP)

The petition explains: “On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots.

“If they all vote the way their states voted, Donald Trump will win.

“However, they can vote for Hillary Clinton if they choose.

“Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted, they would simply pay a small fine - which we can be sure Clinton supporters will be glad to pay!

(Image: Getty)

“We are calling on the Electors to ignore their states' votes and cast their ballots for Secretary Clinton.”

Since the Electoral College was founded there have been 157 faithless electors.

There are 29 states plus the District of Columbia that order their electors to be faithful – but the punishments for refusing to comply are minimal.

In some elections the votes have been changed because a candidate died, 82 were changed based on the personal views of the College member.

Sometimes large groups of electors act together – such as when 23 from Virginia changed their vote in 1836.