Electors meet today to pick next President

Last minute efforts to stop “election” of Donald Trump as POTUS all likely to fail  

According to a report this morning in Newsmax,   “…  you thought Election Day was in November….   Electors are set to gather in every state on Monday to formally elect Donald Trump president even as anti-Trump forces try one last time to deny him the White House….   Protests are planned for state capitals, but they are unlikely to persuade the Electoral College to dump Trump. An Associated Press survey of electors found very little appetite to vote for alternative candidates…   Republican electors say they have been deluged with emails, phone calls and letters urging them not to support Trump. Many of the emails are part of coordinated campaigns….”   (See  “Electoral College Meets Amid Effort to Deny Trump Presidency” by Staff Writer, 12/19/16, Newsmax/ Home   [http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Electoral-College/2016/12/19/id/764594/]).   


That Newsmax article went on to state,  along with many anecdotal examples,  that   “….   Some Democrats have argued that the Electoral College is undemocratic because it gives more weight to less populated states. That is how Hillary Clinton, who got more than 2.6 million more votes nationwide, lost the election to Trump. Some have also tried to dissuade Trump voters by arguing that he is unsuited to the job. Others cite the CIA's assessment that Russia engaged in computer hacking to sway the election in favor of the Republican….   But despite the national group therapy session being conducted by some Democrats, only one Republican elector told the AP that he will not vote for Trump….”

NOTHING IN U.S. CONSTITUTION OR FEDERAL LAW

Newsmax says that there is no constitutional provision or federal law which requires any elector to cast his/her vote for the candidate who carried their state in the November election.   However,  there are some  >>>states<<<  that do require their electors to vote for the winning candidate,  some by either by operation of state law  ---  and others by signed pledges.   Nonetheless, no elector in the Electoral College has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote as pledged, according to the National Archives.   The Newsmax article says that   “….   Those laws are rarely tested. More than 99 percent of electors through U.S. history have voted for the candidate who won their state….”

CONGRESS STILL MUST MEET TO  CERTIFY RESULT OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE

The Newsmax piece, cited above, also noted that a “joint session of Congress” will convene on January 6^th 2017 to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, with Vice President Joe Biden presiding as president of the Senate.


After the result of the Electoral College vote is certified by the Congress, the winner  —  more than likely Donald Trump — will be sworn in on January  20^th.