Posted on 12/13/2016 10:08:19 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Republican National Committee is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trump’s Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect.
Two RNC sources familiar with the effort said the committee — with the assistance of state Republican parties and the Trump campaign — have been in touch with most of the GOP electors multiple times, and has concluded that only one is a risk to cast a vote against Trump on Dec. 19, when the Electoral College meets.
The RNC’s elector head count, the sources emphasized, is standard practice in presidential election years. But this year it also serves as an early-warning system for potentially wayward GOP electors amid an intense push by Democratic electors to convince 37 of their Republican counterparts to jump ship. The Democrats are hoping that dozens of GOP electors — many of whom were picked at local conventions and party meetings dominated by Trump’s opponents — are already primed to resist Trump.
“The state Republican parties in the states that went for Trump are heavily invested in this process,” said one of the RNC sources. “It’s a matter of personal pride for a state party chairman and a state party to ensure that all the electors that their people elected vote, and vote in the manner in which they’re supposed to.”
State party leaders, the RNC sources said, are in frequent communication with electors through phone calls and letters. They have identified multiple points of contact for the GOP electors and also monitor their social media, all to guard against the prospect of electors voting for someone other than Trump.
Arizona GOP Chairman Robert Graham confirmed that, along with RNC and Trump campaign officials, he’s been in contact with the state’s 11 Republican electors and is confident that all will back Trump. That kind of due diligence is critical, he said, as Democrats lobby Republican electors to bail on Trump.
“I think it’s a smart thing for the RNC and Trump campaign to do just to get a feel for it,” he said. “It’s good strategic cooperation. I think right now, they’re getting a pretty consistent message back from the states that everything’s good.”
Several Republican electors contacted by POLITICO reported receiving calls or letters from their state parties reminding them of their duties, as well as outreach from Trump campaign officials intended to ensure they understood their logistical responsibilities.
Jim Rhoades, a Michigan Republican elector, said he called the state party himself — no outreach was necessary because he’s a solidly pro-Trump vote.
“I wouldn’t expect them to [call],” he said. “They know where I stand, I don’t think that they’re going to concern themselves with me.”
Many electors, including Rhoades, have reported receiving thousands of emails a day from people attempting to convince them to reject Trump.
To date, just one Republican — Chris Suprun of Texas — has publicly revealed an intention to cast a vote for someone other than Trump.
Trump won the popular vote in states that include 306 electoral votes. If 37 Republican electors rejected him, he’d fall below the 270-vote threshold necessary to become president, sending the election to the House of Representatives for a January vote.
The anti-Trump group of Democratic electors has sought to forge a consensus on an alternative candidate who would be agreeable to GOP electors, and signaled last week they were coalescing behind Ohio Gov. John Kasich as the most broadly acceptable choice. Kasich, however, said last Tuesday that electors should not vote for him.
Leaders of that faction, known as the "Hamilton electors," acknowledge their chances are slim. One reason is that numerous GOP electors who openly criticized Trump during the campaign have said they will nevertheless cast their votes for him. Among those Republicans are erstwhile Trump critics like Peter Greathouse in Utah, Jim Skaggs in Kentucky, Jane Lynch in Arizona and Charlie Potts in Oklahoma.
“I would prefer that another person had been nominated by the Republican Party and had won the election, but am I going to go against 14 million [primary voters] who voted for Trump?” Potts said. “And am I going to vote against all the people in Oklahoma who voted two-to-one for Trump? No, that’s just stupid.”
Potts noted that his home state, Oklahoma, makes it a misdemeanor to oppose the statewide popular vote winner — a crime he doesn’t want to commit. But even if he believed that those laws can’t be enforced — as anti-Trump Democratic electors are arguing in lawsuits filed in three states — it would take a far more flawed candidate than Trump to convince him to disenfranchise Oklahoma’s voters.
“Let’s say that somehow the American people nominated a guy who had murdered 47 people, carved ’em all up and put ’em in a ditch and hadn’t been caught yet, and he got nominated for president,” Potts said. “Well, you know, then I might change my mind.”
Skaggs, the Kentucky elector, told POLITICO recently that he’d resign if he felt compelled to oppose Trump, but still intends to cast his vote in support of the GOP nominee.
Utah’s Greathouse has pointed to his state’s law, which binds electors to support the candidate who won the statewide popular vote, as the most prominent reason he won’t consider voting for someone other than Trump. Similar laws exist in 29 states, including 14 where Trump won.
The penalties for violating these laws vary widely, with some states carrying no penalty at all, some issuing modest fines, and some requiring immediate replacement of electors. One state, New Mexico, treats “faithless” electoral votes as felonies.
“Since we cannot vote for another individual by law, we are not even considering it as an option,” Greathouse said in an email.
Aside from the laws designed to rein in “faithless electors,” the forces arrayed against an Electoral College revolt are formidable. The Republican electors hail from the states were Trump won the popular vote and, in interviews, many said rejecting the will of the voters in their state would be unthinkable. Most are also longtime party loyalists, selected by state GOP leaders for the sole purpose of confirming Trump’s election, which means violating that expectation would all but assure permanent excommunication from the party.
Convincing anti-Trump Republicans to withstand pressure and remain on the Electoral College for the purpose of voting against Trump has proven difficult. Aside from Suprun, there are two additional Republican electors who have strongly suggested they wouldn’t vote for Trump. But those two electors, Art Sisneros of Texas and Baoky Vu of Georgia, are promising to resign and let pro-Trump electors replace them on Dec. 19.
Most early reports indicated that Vu and Sisneros had already resigned because they issued statements indicating their intention to do so. But, in a quirk of the long-overlooked Electoral College rules, there is no mechanism for them to quit until the day of the vote. On that day, if they choose to stay home, the remaining electors will vote to replace them with alternates. In the meantime, anti-Trump electors and their allies have been pleading with both men to change their minds and vote against Trump.
Vu and Sisneros told POLITICO they still intend to quit.
“Technically I am still the elector,” Sisneros said. “However, I will not be changing my mind.”
Related:
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2016/certificates-of-ascertainment.html
As each state certifies, the certification doc is uploaded and the name becomes an active link.
H/t cboldt for finding the link.
Sad that we no longer can depend on personal integrity of the Electors and will have to legislate that Electors obey the will of the people or resign.
Leni
If they succeed with this coup, it will be very dangerous to be an establishment Dem or GOP.....just sayin’.....
One publicity whore out of over 300 electors gets wall-to-wall MSM coverage.
It’s like a pastor who supports gay marriage - he’s held out as “typical.”
The CARE and FEEDING of an elector 101
Suprin is compromised via Ashley Madison. I would expect his home life to be difficult right now, although perhaps he is being paid enough for his wife to overlook things.
that guy (fire fighter/EMT) has no idea the long term problems he has caused himself in Texas.
Residents of the area covered by the Fire Dept station house he works for, should inundate the station with calls giving their contact info - names & addresses & license plates - and demand that he not be included in any units sent to fires they are involved in, or accidents they are involved in, because they cannot rest easy placing trust for their lives and property in the hands of someone so untrustworthy as he is.
I think a demand of this nature would have far more impact than if they simply demand his firing (which would likely just result in eyeball-rolling). Let the Fire Dept know it's their own decision as to the character of the people they hire, but if they decide to let a man such as this wear their uniform & badge, then "Keep him away from me!"
Whatever oath or pledge or vow he took to join the Fire Dept is just as good, or just as worthless, as his oath to faithfully represent millions of Texas voters.
If any of the solemn oaths repeated by this guy is worthless, so are all the others. Either you are trustworthy or you are not. Why should citizens of that town take a great risk by trusting his word to protect their properties and lives?
“To date, just one Republican — Chris Suprun of Texas — has publicly revealed an intention to cast a vote for someone other than Trump.”
I agree. I would be frightened to know that a local firefighter’s word was worthless. How could I trust he would any job he was assigned even saving a life in a fire.
States have to clear up questions about their Electors TODAY, December 13.
Texas does not have a faithless elector law.
Apparently he was a first-responder to the World Trade Center on 9/11. Kinda wonder if he's a New Yorker transplanted to Texas. Maybe he'll move back where he'll fit in better.
Sounds as if he was a Fireman in NYC, but is now a paramedic in Dallas. Any Freepers in Dallas?
This is very reassuring to see that the GOP is taking this seriously. The Dems and liberals are totally nuts since Donald Trump won and we have to keep our ducks in a row. That’s why fighting the recount was necessary too. If we hadn’t fought Stein, we may well have lost electors because the recounting went on too long as they claimed more and more ‘irregularities’.
Still would not trust him in any capacity. His word apparently is not his bond.
“Texas does not have a faithless elector law.”
This (plus what Michigan’s legislature just did) prove the point that if people didn’t do things wrong, there’d be no need for laws. Jews didn’t get the Ten Commandments because our ancestors were as pure as the driven snow, and the same applies to pretty much all secular laws.
WRT this particular guy, I hope that someone close to him and whom he respects has a nice conversation with him sometime between now and Monday, and let’s him know: a) his one changed vote will mean nothing; and b) if he insists upon being a faithless Elector, then that’ll have repercussions in his day-to-day life for a long time to come. No threats necessary, just a statement of the facts.
30. Stephen Suprun Jr — I guess this one on the certificate of ascertainment is “Chris” Suprun from the articles, and that “he” is on the official list.
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