title:  A Growing Coalition Of Electors Is Working Feverishly To Stop Trump
text: There are all kinds of pushes designed to stop Trump from officially taking office in January. There s a petition on Change.org with over four million signatures calling on electors to make Hillary president. A recount effort is underway in three crucial battleground states. There are calls for investigations into his conflicts of interest, which could be unconstitutional and could prevent him from legally taking office.And now, a group of electors has gotten together to start raising money for  a three-week mad dash to stop Donald Trump s election.  It s true that these are Democratic electors, but their goal is to successfully lobby enough of their Republican counterparts to put someone ahem sane into the White House.The group is calling itself the Hamilton Electors, presumably after founding father Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton described both the need and the purpose of the Electoral College in  Federalist No. 68  as the following: [The Electoral College] 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. Trump is eminently unqualified for the office of the president, and yet he won the necessary electoral votes. Therefore, if we look at what Hamilton said, our electors are obligated to reject Donald Trump and choose someone else.It s not yet clear what the Hamilton Electors will actually do with the money they raise, but their endgame is clear: Stop Trump in any legal way possible. They have already registered a 527 non-profit organization, and Colorado Democratic elector Michael Baca and his compatriots are looking to replace Trump with a more mainstream Republican.Wait, what? Why a mainstream Republican? Because as much as it should go to Hillary given the popular vote totals, the electors they have to convince to reject Trump are never going to do it if their alternative is a Democrat, and especially if it s Hillary. A mainstream Republican, such as John Kasich, is an alternative that many Republicans could probably get behind. This, however, means convincing Democratic electors in addition to Republican electors.Someone like Kasich could do a lot to halt the progress we ve made over the last 8 years, but he s sane, at the very least. He also won t be flying off the handle on Twitter at every single last perceived slight. He has his problems, but at least we can be reasonably sure the country will survive to see 2020.Under Trump ? There s a lot less of a guarantee, especially with Congressional leaders signaling that they re ready to work with him. And, as some are pointing out, the electors have an obligation to ensure that we don t put a demagogue into the White House. And there is currently no law or precedent preventing the College from choosing its own candidate.There have been no overt signs that Republican electors will get behind the Hamilton Electors, however, the Democratic coalition says they re getting through to at least some of them. Even a split vote, where Trump doesn t get 270 electoral votes on Dec. 19, might help because that would send it to Congress and they d have the final say.Unfortunately, they d probably choose Trump anyway.If someone else, like Kasich, Mitt Romney, or another mainstream Republican managed to get 270 electoral votes, there would likely be some serious problems. That s particularly true for Trump voters, the RNC, and Congress. The chances that the Hamilton Electors will succeed in their efforts are slim, but at least we have a group in the Electoral College that s trying.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images