Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that two Colorado electors must cast their votes on Monday for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who won Colorado’s popular vote in November’s election.
We agree with Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who called the lawsuit “arrogant,” since Colorado law clearly states that electors are bound to cast their ballots for the candidate who won the state’s popular vote. Because Polly Baca and Robert Nemanich are unhappy with Donald Trump’s victory and are trying to hatch a movement of electors to vote their “conscience” does not give them the right to discard the voice of Coloradans.
Contrary to what Baca and Nemanich would have us think, the job of a Colorado elector is not to vote his or her conscience. The job of an elector is to vote according to his or her state’s popular vote. That’s whose voice counts: the voters’. That’s it.
A unique aspect of US politics is that we, the people, choose our executive. It behooves us to remember that in most other countries — and we’re talking about democracies — the executive is decided by the party, not the people.
In fact, that was the original plan at the Constitutional Convention — that Congress would elect the executive. However, founders such as the primary author of the Constitution, James Madison, supported a popular vote, concerned about the appearance of an elite group of people choosing the executive.
Ultimately, in the great way of the founders’ thinking, a compromise was chosen — a mix of a state-based and popular-based vote, and it was enshrined into the Constitution in Article II. This compromise comforted states concerned about their lack of size leading to a lack of representation — a possibility that only became more acute with the growth of the country.
Baca and Nemanich have anointed themselves “Hamilton electors,” because Hamilton — and Madison, too, although he isn’t trendy — did not believe that electors should all, de facto, vote the same way. That’s because presidential elections in Hamilton’s time were conducted differently, with a list of each party’s nominees pitted against each other. So applying that particular model today (which, incidentally, also called specifically for “men” only to make the decision) is not intellectually honest — and not legally valid in Colorado. If anything, Baca and Nemanich harken back not to Hamilton, but to Madison’s warning in the Federalist Papers of “mischief of factions.”
Baca and Nemanich were entrusted with a job: to represent the State of Colorado. If they don’t fulfill their duty — which seems likely considering the appeal they have filed— they shouldn’t be surprised if the people of Colorado lose faith in their faithlessness.
Copyright © 2016 by the Intermountain Jewish News
