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Dear Nicole,
We are gearing up to fight the dangers of a Trump
presidency with everything we’ve got. Today, we
have one last, long shot at preventing the most
dangerous and hateful administration in our
nation’s history. We hope you’ll help us fight for
it.
On Dec. 19, the electors to the Electoral College
will cast their ballots to elect the next
president. In many states, these electors are not
bound by the state’s total vote and can choose to
vote for whomever they want with little or no
legal consequence.1
Hillary Clinton is likely to win the majority
vote by 2 million votes or more.2 The
electors have a civic duty to elect the candidate
chosen by the people, and they have a moral
obligation to elect the one who is most fit to
serve.
Tell
the Electoral College electors: Honor the
popular vote, stop Trump and elect Hillary
Clinton. Click here to sign the petition.
There are countless reasons why Trump is unfit to
serve as our president and commander in chief:
he’s a racist who has already installed a white
supremacist in one of the top positions in his
White House, a misogynist who has bragged about
sexual assault, and a bigot who plans to deport,
surveille, and harass millions of people because
of their religion and skin color. His hate doesn’t
technically disqualify him from serving, but it
should be top of mind for electors as they
consider their choice.
In addition, the electors should consider the
following when casting their votes:
-
Clinton won the majority vote.
With millions of absentee and mail-in ballots
yet to be counted, it appears Clinton could
win the majority by more than 2 million votes.
The Electoral College, designed by the framers
to protect southern slave states, is outdated,
unnecessary, and wholly unfair.3 In
just the last 16 years, two candidates who won
the popular vote – Al Gore and Hillary Clinton
– have not served as president. In fact, in
the last six out of seven presidential
elections, Democrats won the popular vote
although Republicans have claimed Electoral
College victory in three. The will of
the people is being subverted by a broken
and biased system that doesn’t count
everyone’s vote equally.
-
Widespread and intentional voter
suppression aimed at people of color.
Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting
Rights Act in 2013, many Republican-controlled
state legislatures have enacted measures like
eliminating and reducing early voting as well
as enacting discriminatory photo ID
requirements and restrictions on voter
registration to keep Democratic and minority
voters from the polls.4 In
Wisconsin, where Clinton lost by only 27,000
votes, 300,000 eligible voters lacked the
strict forms of ID needed to vote, and the
state saw its lowest turnout in 20 years,
especially in Black communities.5
In North Carolina, there were 158 fewer early
voting polling places in Black communities,
and Black turnout was down 16 percent. And
across the country, Black people were forced
to wait in line twice as long on average as
white people.6 It's
entirely possible that without voter
suppression, Clinton would have won the
Electoral College along with the popular
vote.
-
Russian interference.
Throughout the campaign, it was clear the
Russian government was actively working to
influence the outcome in Trump’s favor.
State-sponsored Russian hackers provided
troves of damaging emails and documents to
WikiLeaks and other websites.7 Paid
Russian trolls disseminated fake news across
US social media sites to spread misinformation
favorable to Trump.8 And though
Trump lied about it, his campaign was in
direct contact with the Russian government
throughout the election.9 Trump has
well established connections to Russia through
many business dealings, and he spent
considerable time during the campaign praising
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now
that Trump has access to classified
intelligence and the nuclear codes, we can’t
trust what he will do with them. His
presidency is a clear threat to American
democracy and our national security.
His supporters, the media and most in our
government may have declared Trump the next
president, but he did not win the majority support
of the American people under ordinary
circumstances. Given the extraordinary context,
the Electoral College electors have one last
chance to right this terrible wrong and cast their
votes against Trump.
We want to be perfectly clear that
persuading the electors to reject Donald Trump
is a long shot. Despite the points
raised above, the electors will come under
tremendous pressure to put Trump in office. It’s a
massive uphill battle, but we need to
appeal to the morality of the electors to do
what’s right and refuse to put the power of the
presidency in the hands of a fascist demagogue
like Donald Trump. People of conscience will
stand on the right side of history and continue
doing everything in their power to stop Trump.
Tell the Electoral College electors:
Honor the popular vote, stop Trump and elect
Hillary Clinton. Click the link below to sign
the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Trump_Electoral_College?t=6&akid=20545.1041974.ZnES_X
Thanks for all you do.
Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO
Action from Working Assets
Add
your name:
- About
the Electors, National Archives and
Records Administration.
- Daniel Marans, “Hillary
Clinton’s Popular Vote Victory Will Likely
Keep Growing,” Huffington Post, Nov. 12,
2016.
- Akhil Reed Amar, “The
Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists,”
Time, Nov. 8, 2016.
- New
Voting Restrictions in Place for 2016
Presidential Election, Brennan Center for
Justice.
- Ari Berman, “
The GOP’s Attack on Voting Rights Was the Most
Under-Covered Story of 2016,” The Nation,
Nov. 9, 2016.
- Liz Kennedy, “Voter
Suppression Laws Cost Americans Their Voices
at the Polls,” Center for American
Progress, Nov. 11, 2016.
- Caroline Baylon, “Did
Russia Install Donald Trump As the Next U.S.
President?,” Newsweek, Nov. 11, 2016.
- Yochi Dreazen, “Facebook
is full of fake news stories. On Election Day,
don’t fall for them.,” Vox, Nov. 8, 2016.
- Jim Sciutto and Ryan Browne, “Russia
says it had contact with Trump team,” Nov.
11, 2016.
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