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Colorado electors plan to challenge state law in bid to derail Donald Trump’s victory

By: Rachel Riley

Four of Colorado’s nine Electoral College electors plan to challenge a state law that would prevent a long-shot bid to keep President-elect Donald Trump out of the White House.

Robert Nemanich, of Colorado Springs, said Saturday he and three other electors intend to sue Colorado’s governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state Democratic Party chairman claiming state law requiring electors to vote for the presidential and vice presidential candidates “who received the highest number of votes at the preceding general election in this state,” is unconstitutional.

 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won Colorado – and the popular vote nationwide – but lost the election to Trump, who captured the needed Electoral College votes to win the presidency.The four electors hope that if the law is struck down, Colorado’s electors can join forces with other Democrats pledged to Clinton and disaffected Republicans pledged to Trump to find an alternative Republican acceptable to both sides, Nemanich said.

“There are Republicans and Democrats now willing to look for a solution to Donald Trump (being elected).” he said. “The linchpin comes down to whether there are enough Republicans to join.”

Eight of Colorado’s nine electors have voiced support for the lawsuit, which Nemanich said would be filed Monday.

The plan would require that 270 electors agree to vote for a presidential candidate that was not on the ballot.

If electors pick the candidate they’ve pledged to pick, as they’ve done in past elections, Trump would win the presidency by 37 votes. Because Colorado residents elected Clinton, all of the state’s nine votes would go to the Democratic presidential candidate.

Along with another four electors from Washington trying to stop Trump’s election, Nemanich and the three other electors named as plaintiffs in the suit – former Democratic state Rep. Polly Baca of Denver, Michael Baca of Denver, and Jerad Sutton of Greeley – have been nicknamed the Hamilton Electors after United States Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. In an installment of the well-known Federalist Papers essay series, Hamilton argued that the Electoral College is meant to serve as a safeguard against electing a candidate who may not be qualified to be president.

“Donald Trump is unfit, immoral and unethical to be the president of the United States,” Nemanich said, later adding that voiding his presidency is about “what’s best for the country.”

Nemanich said former Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain have been considered as possible alternatives because they had already been vetted during their respective 2012 and 2008 presidential runs.

The plan would “ideally” involve electing a Democratic vice president, Nemanich said. A president and vice president from opposing political parties have not been elected in more than 200 years.

It’s just one more unconventional part of the Hamilton Electors’ plan, which could lead to dissatisfaction among American voters if it works, he said.

“There’s no precedent for this,” Nemanich said. “If we’re successful, there’s going to be unrest.”

The Associated Press contributed the reporting of this article.

Contact Rachel Riley: 636-0108

http://m.gazette.com/colorado-electors-plan-to-challenge-state-law-in-bid-to-derail-donald-trumps-victory/article/1591550

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