To say the least, the race outcome for the position of the 45th president of the United States has been shocking and divisive. By now, everyone fully knows that Trump has claimed the well-desired position by the mercy of the electoral state vote. On the other hand, Clinton won the favor of the majority of the population by 280,000 people - but lost due to the electoral state vote.
If you’re angry, you may be damning the electoral voting system for preventing the popular vote to solely decide the outcome of the election. Perhaps, you may be scoffing at the irony of the system -- how can the system that the Founding Fathers set up to prevent a direct-democracy election of a potential future-nutjob candidate be the measure that elected a future-nutjob candidate?
Don’t be mad yet. Yes, the past few days of the election have been hard, and yes, many are having difficulty coming to terms with the meaning of this election. Many Clinton supporters have protested all over the nation about the election outcome, with many refusing to accept the long-term repercussions of Trump’s election. Although seemingly chaotic and a little over-the-top to some, these actions are justified. In providing evidence and bringing this issue closer to home, numerous non-Caucasian students in the UC Berkeley campus have been verbally harassed with a bevy of sexist, racist, and homophobic slanders, and the already-sketchy Telegraph Avenue potentially becomes an even more dangerous area for women and people of color than it already was. Obviously, these cases of harassment are not limited to Berkeley -- the nation’s peoples of color are suffering as an increasing number of people are more overt.
Many are wondering. America, have we made a mistake?
I don’t know. But, if you are one who desperately want the recent election to be a mistake -- like Steve Harvey’s announcement of Miss Universe 2015 -- there is a sliver of hope.
You see, the electoral voting system has a SOS system too, in case it screwed the country up like it did in recent days. Anyway, results of the election will not be official until individual members of the Electoral College cast their ballots on the 19th of December. The electors who are voting will be individuals who are appointed ahead of time by each political party of each state. If the state is red, the electors chosen by the Republican Party will cast their ballots for their desired president. Likewise, if the state is blue, the electors appointed by the Democratic party will cast their ballots for the desired president.
Usually, the electors vote for the presidential candidate belonging to their own political party, but there have been electors who have voted for the opposing party’s presidential candidate or abstained from voting altogether -- these rebelling electors are called “faithless electors.” There have not been many faithless electors in the past (the last elector-gone-rogue happened in 2004), nor has a faithless elector changed the election decision. However, seeing how this election was historically divisive, there could be a record number of faithless electors on December 19.
Although this last hope may seem out of the public’s control, there is something we can do -- voice our concern. There is a petition going around the internet that encourages electors to cast their vote for Clinton. Click here to see the page; I also encourage you to sign it. #ImStillWithHer.