December 08, 2016 11:54 AM UTC

Pueblo Electoral College Member Ain't Playin'

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Peter Strescino reports at the Pueblo Chieftain:

Pueblo County Democratic Chairwoman Marybeth Corsentino, a Colorado elector in the Electoral College, said Wednesday that she doubts she would join in an effort to deny Donald Trump the presidency.

Not that Corsentino would not love to see that take place, but she said that she considers it her legal duty to vote for the presidential choice of the voters in Colorado, Hillary Clinton, who earned almost 75,000 more votes than Trump did in the state during last month’s election.

Two other Colorado electors, Polly Baca, a former Democratic state lawmaker, and Robert Nemanich, are among a national group calling themselves moral electors hoping to persuade Republican electors in other states to vote for a different GOP candidate to keep Trump from receiving 270 electoral votes.

Like we said yesterday, the impulse to take any possible action to deny Donald Trump the presidency is understandable from Democratic opponents, especially given the surprise nature of his victory and lack of a popular vote majority. But the fact is that a coup in the Electoral College against Trump after he won by the rules as they governed the election would be rejected by the American people. Absent convincing evidence that Trump did not win an Electoral College majority, which has not been produced despite an arguably unprecedented effort, Trump is the President-elect–and the consequences of breaking with our peaceful history of power transfers are immeasurably worse than Trump becoming President.

Obviously, we hope we don’t have to eat those last words someday.

On a local level, what we’re really arguing about here is a constitutional right of Electoral College members from Colorado to break Colorado law and vote for a candidate other than the one to whom they are pledged. If successful, this would certainly help de-legitimize the Electoral College in the mind of the voting public–which would be good in theory if you think the Electoral College is an anachronism. On the other hand, as long as the Electoral College remains the system by which we elect Presidents, there’s an argument that it needs to have whatever democratic protections that exist, like laws binding electors to their pledge. And of course, there’s plenty of reason for people in smallish states like ours prefer the Electoral College, since without it we’d get less attention in presidential election years.

Look, we know it’s a tough pill to swallow. But Trump’s opponents need to get ready to contend with his presidency. Because despite all the frustration, and as-yet unrealized fears, the battle to prevent Trump’s presidency is over.