Let me preface this by saying I am not picking a side in this article. I am simply discussing the petition and other relevant information.
There is a petition, on Change.org, right now directed at the electoral college. Many people are asking that the electoral college elects Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump. Many people have probably heard of this. I heard about his petition when it had just over two million signatures. As of November 16th, this petition now has 4,343,757 support’s signatures. The reason for the request is because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and people do not believe that Donald Trump is fit to run the country.
Elijah Berg started this petition, and it has grown a lot in the relatively short time since the election. The goal for the petition is 4.5 million signatures. Well, Elijah is only 156,243 signatures away from that goal. He is calling for the electoral college to elect Clinton on December 19th. He wants the electors to ignore their state's ruling and vote against it.
Here is one of the biggest problems with the petition’s goal. Many states have laws that prohibit faithless votes. In some states, it could lead to a misdemeanor and a $1,000 fine. In others, these disloyal voters could be prosecuted and receive jail time. Yes, there have been faithless votes cast in the past. However, it has never been enough to change the election results. The candidate who received the most electoral votes in November is also the person the electoral college elected as well.
After no through the petition details, it would seem that the biggest reason behind it is because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and therefore he, and all of those who have signed it, thinks that means she should be president. Now, I will not begin to claim to know everything about the electoral college, but one thing I know is that this isn't the first time that a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote. It has happened before, and even as recent as the George Bush v. Al Gore election in 2000. George Bush won the electoral vote, and Al Gore won the popular vote. George Bush obviously was the one to go on to become the President of the United States. It has happened before, but that doesn't mean that the one who won the popular vote should necessarily be president.
If, and that is a big if, the electoral college has enough faithless votes to sway the election for Hillary Clinton, there are a couple of checks put in place that could still prevent her from becoming president. One is in the case of a tie, and the other is if the electoral college were to elect Clinton instead of Trump.
Due to the rules that prohibit faithless votes, and the checks in place to prevent it, it is extremely unlikely that Hillary will end up being president.
