Tomorrow, 538 U.S. citizens will meet to decide on who is to be the next president of the United States. These citizens are “electors” chosen by their states’ political parties to vote on the president and vice president. While the electors are certainly free to vote for whomever they want, they are expected to vote for whichever candidate won their state, and they would be fined up to $1,000 if they were to vote for anyone else.
As we all know, based on the electoral college, Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. But many have been wondering if the majority of electors will instead vote for Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by nearly three million votes. So what is the likelihood that Trump won’t actually be elected?
Well, a republican elector from Texas by the name of Christopher Suprun wrote in a New York Times Op-Ed that he will not be casting his vote for Donald Trump. He wrote that “I am asked to cast a vote on Dec. 19 for someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.” Suprun cites Trump’s Twitter rants and lack of foreign policy experience as reasons that he refuses to support the president elect. He goes on to express that he believes there will be a possibility that Trump doesn’t get to the White House. “The election of the next president is not yet a done deal. Electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country.”
While Christopher Suprun’s stance is certainly encouraging for any U.S. citizen with a conscience, it’s not necessarily a win for Hillary Clinton. According to Business Insider, Suprun and other electors planning to turn their backs on the candidate elected by their state (aka “faithless” electors) have said they plan to write in Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
All in all, the odds that Trump won’t actually get elected are slim to none. It’s all but set in stone that he will be the 45th president of the United States. With his faction of neoconservative, loyalist supporters, he’s created enough of a backing to push the electors to give him the ticket to the White House. But as we’ve seen, 2016 has been full of surprises. Hopefully the electors can give us one last surprise before the year’s over by denying Trump the presidency.
As you anxiously wait to see what the electoral college does, enjoy Saturday Night Live’s “Hillary Actually” skit from last night depicting Hillary encouraging an elector to vote for anyone other than Trump. It gave me a laugh, and it’s definitely worth a watch.
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