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Thursday, November 05, 2020
In American elections, citizens do not directly elect the president, but only a body of voters. They have to implement voting according to the result, but they don’t always stick to it. In 2016 alone, ten voters broke their votes.
Two more states, maybe even just one, then Joe Biden would have succeeded: he would have a minimum majority of at least 270 votes in the so-called Electoral College and would have conquered the White House. If the voters, as it was decided, also vote for the Democrats, because that is mandatory, but it is not set in stone: Donald Trump can tell you a thing or two about it.
Four years ago, the billionaire won the presidential election against Hillary Clinton with 306-232 voters. When their victory was to be officially approved a month later in the Electoral College, several of them cheated: Trump received only 304 votes, Clinton even only 227.
It was the first time in more than a hundred years in American history that several rogue electorates tried together to change the outcome of the elections. Instead, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell received three votes. Each of the votes went to former Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle.
Try to stop Trump
The background was the plan by two Democratic electors Micheal Baca and Bret Chiafalo to thwart the Trump presidency as a self-proclaimed Hamilton move. Together they wanted to convince at least 37 Republicans and, under the sign of the community, many more Democratic electorates to listen to their conscience to vote for a third candidate, thus denying Trump a majority in the Electoral College and thus a vote for the presidency in the Force House of Representatives. Like the famous American founding father, Alexander Hamilton, he asked when someone is not suitable for the office.
The United States is unique in that, as a democracy, it has built a safety net in the voting process with the Electoral College to stop unsuitable candidates. In the long history of the United States, only 165 voters have made use of this mechanism, until 63 in 1872, when the winner of the election, Horace Greeley, passed away before the Electoral College meeting. To prevent this opportunity from being seized, many states have passed apostate laws over the years. Today 31 states tell their voters that it is not their conscience that counts, but the result of the elections.
In 2016, only a few members of the Electoral College publicly endorsed the Baca and Chiafalo plans. In the end, ten electorates tried to vote for a candidate other than Trump or Clinton. Only seven of them were successful, including Chiafalo, who gave her presidential vote to Republican Colin Powell and voted for Democrat Elizabeth Warren as vice president. Baca’s vote, on the other hand, was declared null on the basis of the Apostate Law. He was then traded for an obedient voter who cast his vote for Hillary Clinton.
