Republican Texas elector says Trump ‘not qualified for the office’

The petition, entitled “Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President on December 19”, calls on the college’s members to vote for Clinton, who won the popular vote handily on November 8.

While Texas doesn’t have any laws requiring electors vote for whoever won its electoral votes, 29 states issue a variety of rarely enforced punishments, including fines and misdemeanors. If that happens, the selection of President gets thrown to the House of Representatives, where each state’s delegation would have one vote.

“On December 19, the Electors of the Electoral College will cast their ballots”, the petition writes. The recount goes still favor to Donald Trump. It is not expected that Trump will lose the vote, as he won the majority of electors – more than 300 of the 538.

Clinton is the second presidential candidate in the last five contests to win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College. According to FactCheck, electors of the Electoral College have previously opted not to vote for the candidate they’re pledged to, but this has never affected the final outcome of an entire presidential election. Members of the college are supposed to vote for whoever won their state, but could theoretically change their mind.

Support for an amendment to spike the Electoral College and shift to a popular vote system peaked at 80 percent in 1968, after Richard Nixon nearly lost the popular vote while winning the Electoral College. There have been instances of electors not voting for the candidate they’re pledged to, but none have affected the outcome of a U.S. presidential election, according to FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. And it’s supposed to be in our constitution: one person, one vote.

Here in Austin, the Electoral College is a source of frustration. Republicans control 33 governorships, 69/99 state legislatures, and will have over 4,100 state lawmakers in office; the most in office ever since the GOP was founded.